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SOCIAL     REFORM 


THE  CHURCH 


BY 
JOHN    R.    COMMONS 

Professor  of  Economics  and  Social  Science,  Indiana  University 

Secretary  of  the  American  Institute  of 

Christian  Sociology 


with 
AN   INTRODUCTION 

BY 

PROF.     RICHARD     T.     ELY 


NEW  YORK:    46  East  i4Th   Street 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  COMPANY 

BOSTON  :    100  Purchase  Street 


Copyright,  1854, 

BY 

Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Comi'Any. 


Tyi'esettikg  and  Electrotyping  by 
C.  J.  Petebs  k  SON,  Boston. 

Peess-work  by  S.  J.  Fabkhill  i  Co. 


1 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Introduction,  bv  Prof.  Richard  T.  Ely  ...  v 

Preface,  by  the  Authoii ix 

The  Christian  Minister  and  Sociology      .     .  3 

The  Church  and  the  Problem  of  Poverty     .  29 

The  Educated  Man  in  Politics 51 

The  Church  and  Political  Reforms  ....  71 

Temperance  Reform 99 

Municipal  Monopolies 123 

Proportional  Representation 155 


i 


4091 59 


INTRODUCTION. 


It  is  but  a  few  months  since  Professor 
Commons  gave  us  an  important  contribution 
to  economic  theory  in  his  "  Distribution  of 
Wealth,"  a  work  which,  in  my  opinion,  is 
destined  to  exercise  a  decided  influence  upon 
the  development  of  economic  thought.  The 
present  work  fitly  supplements  the  earlier  vol- 
ume in  several  directions.  It  is  more  popu- 
lar in  character,  and  is  calculated  to  exercise 
a  more  immediate  influence  upon  practical 
affairs. 

The  character  of  the  topics  discussed  in 
this  volume  is  significant,  because  political  re- 
forms, as  well  as  social  reforms,  are  urged 
from  an  economic  standpoint.  Adam  Smith 
said  long  ago,  if  a  rod  is  bent  too  much  in 
one    direction,   to    make    it    straight    we    must 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

bend  it  as  much  in  the  other;  and  this  say- 
ing illustrates  the  attitude  of  social  reformers 
towards  politics.  Earlier  in  the  century  there 
was  a  tendency  to  give  undue  importance  to 
mere  political  reforms.  The  Chartists  in  Eng- 
land directed  their  attention  to  political  re- 
forms, and  many  of  them  seemed  to  think 
that  these  alone  would  improve  the  condi- 
tion of  the  masses.  The  Christian  Socialism 
of  Maurice,  Kingsley,  and  others  in  the  middle 
of  the  century  was,  to  some  extent  at  least, 
a  protest  against  the  exaggeration  of  political 
measures. 

Since  that  day,  the  interest  in  politics  on 
the  part  of  the  advocates  of  economic  reforms 
Vy  has  greatly  diminished,  \because  it  has  been 
'^  perceived  that  politics  is  concerned  with  the 
outward  form  and  not  directly  with  the  sub- 
stance of  things.  The  interesting  questions 
of  the  day,  so  far  as  they  have  taken  hold  of 
the  masses  of  mankind,  have  been  socio-eco- 
nomic questions,  not  political  questions.  The 
rod  has  been  bent  too  much,  perhaps,  in  the 
other  direction  ;    and  now   we   may   hope    that 


INTRODUCTION.  Vll 

it  is  becoming  straight,  since  a  comprehensive 
treatment  of  the  social  problems  of  the  day- 
shows  that  \ve  require  ^improvement  in  politi- 
cal conditions,  in  order  to  supply  us  with  a 
better  political  machinery  for  carrying  out  vari- 
ous purposes  with  respect  to  the  amelioration 
of  social  conditions. 

Civil  service  reform  is  an  administrative 
measure  which  has  popular  economic  bearings 
not  sufficiently  considered  heretofore,  because 
the  larger  aspects  of  civil  service  reform  have 
been  neglected  by  those  who  have  been  most 
prominent  as  its  advocates.  But  we  begin 
to  hear  much  of  direct  legislation  by  the 
people  as  seen  in  the  use  of  two  Swiss  insti- 
tutions, the  Initiative  and  the  Referendum. 
Still  another  political  measure  with  impor- 
tant economic  bearings  is  proportional  repre- 
sentation, which  is  so  excellently  treated  by 
Professor  Commons. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  direct  instruction 
and  information  conveyed  by  these  essays,  is 
the  significance  which  they  have  on  account 
of  the  fact,  already  mentioned,  that  they  unite 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

political  and  economic  reforms,  looking  at  the 
former  from  tlic  standpoint  of  the  latter. 

It  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  welcome  this 
work  and  to  commend  it.  Opinions  may  dif- 
fer in  regard  to  the  views  presented  in  this 
work,  as  well  as  in  Professor  Commons's  "  Dis- 
tribution of  Wealth;"  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  they  both  afford  an  excellent  stim- 
ulus to  popular  thought,  and  that  they  are 
calculated  to  awaken  men  to  the  true  impor- 
tance of  popular  questions  of  the  day,  and  to 
help  get  us  out  of  the  ruts  into  which  we 
are  so  likely  to  fall.  It  is  a  time  when  we 
need  vigorous  thinking,  clear  thinking,  and 
a  right  spirit  ;  and  all  these  are  found  in  the 
works  of  Professor  Commons. 

Richard  T.  Ely. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  essays,  except  the  last  one, 
were  read  originally  before  audiences  dis- 
tinctively Christian.  Some  of  them  appeared 
subsequently  in  print.  "  The  Christian  Min- 
ister and  Sociology  "  was  published  as  a  leaf- 
let by  the  Christian  Social  Union  in  the  United 
States.  "  The  Church  and  the  Problem  of 
Poverty  "  appeared  in  the  Charities  Revietu  of 
June,  1893.  "The  Educated  Man  in  Politics" 
was  published  by  the  Indiana  Student,  a 
monthly  periodical  conducted  by  the  students 
of  Indiana  University.  The  essays  on  "The 
Church  and  Political  Reforms,"  and  "Temper- 
ance Reform,"  were  read  before  a  sectional 
conference  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  at 
Chicago,  and  will  probably  appear  in  the  pub- 
lished proceedings  of  that  meeting.  The 
ix 


X  PREFACE. 

paper  on  "Municipal  Monopolies"  is  printed 
here  for  the  first  time.  "  Proportional  Rep- 
resentation "  was  read  at  the  World's  Con- 
gress on  Suffrage,  and  is  here  presented  as 
supplementary  to  the  essay  on  "  The  Church 
and  Political  Reforms." 

JOHN   R.  COMMONS. 

Indiana  University,  Bloomington,  Ind. 

A'oveinber,  iSgj. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTER 
AND  SOCIOLOGY. 


SOCIAL  REFORM  AND  THE 
CHURCH. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTER 
AND   SOCIOLOGY. 

Sociology  is  properly  the  science  which 
deals  with  society  as  a  whole.  It  co-ordinates 
all  the  special  social  sciences,  such  as  ethics, 
politics,  and  religion.  It  studies  society  as  an 
organism,  and  shows  how  other  social  sciences 
investigate  simply  different  phases  of  that  or- 
ganism. The  sociologist  studies  the  individual 
man,  not  as  a  separate  particle,  but  as  an  organ 
intimately  bound  up  in  the  social  organism.  It 
is  this  organic  nature  of  society  which  alone 
furnishes  the  reason  for  a  science  w^hich  can  be 
called  sociology.  The  fact  that  I  am  depend- 
ent for  the  clothes   I  wear,  not    on   the  indi- 


4  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER 

vidual  of  whom  I  bought  them,  but  on  millions 
of  individuals  working  together  throughout 
our  whole  nation,  with  more  or  less  harmony, 
teaches  me  that  it  is  this  organism,  society, 
which  determines  my  weal  or  woe.  If  I  can 
devote  myself  to  literature  and  science,  if  I 
can  worship  God  in  the  midst  of  beautiful  and 
inspiring  surroundings,  it  is  because  society 
cares  for  my  bodily  wants  and  leaves  my  mind 
free  for  nobler  things.  Society  gives  me  my 
opportunities ;  I  myself  am  responsible  only 
for  the  use  I  make  of  them.  This  brings  us 
to  the  special  significance  which  sociology  has 
for  the  Christian  minister  and  the  Christian 
believer.  Although  sociology  deals  with  all 
phases  of  society,  yet  there  are  practical  prob- 
lems to-day  which  give  it  a  special  application. 
Society  gives  us  opportunities  ;  yet  there  are 
great  classes  of  society,  including  millions  of 
individuals,  from  whom  society  withdraws  every- 
thing that  we  deem  worthy  of  even  the  name 
of  opportunity.  This  is  the  problem  of  sociol- 
ogy with  which  the  Christian  has  most  to  do  : 
What  are  the   relations   of  society  as   a  whole 


AND   SOCIOLOGY.  5 

to  the  unprivileged  classes  ?  What  is  there 
in  the  social  organism  that  produces  these 
classes  ?  Can  anything  be  done  to  give  them 
opportunities  for  a  higher  life  ?  Can  they  be 
educated  to  make  good  use  of  improved  oppor- 
tunities ?  Whose  duty  is  it  to  give  them  these 
opportunities  and  to  teach  them  how  to  use 
them  ? 

In  order  to  put  this  matter  clearly  I  will  pre- 
sent four  propositions  which  lead  logically  up 
to  the  special  purpose  of  this  paper. 

First  —  TJiere  is  a  social  problem.  In  the 
last  analysis  it  is  none  other  than  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth. 

This  is  the  social  side  of  all  our  social  prob- 
lems. Our  social  classes  are  based  on  private 
property  and  education.  But  property  holds 
the  key.  The  educated  classes  themselves  are 
dependent  for  their  livelihood  upon  those  who 
control  the  property.  As  for  the  classes  who 
depend  wholly  on  their  daily  wages,  access  to 
land  and  capital  is  their  only  means  of  life. 
They  must  find  an  employer.     The  man  with- 


6  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER 

out  an  employer  is  a  vagabond  and  an  outlaw. 
What  are  the  results  of  this  condition  ?  On 
the  one  hand  is  great  wealth,  bringing  great 
luxury  and  extravagance,  great  haughtiness  and 
little  thought  for  the  trials  and  privations  of 
the  unpropertied.  On  the  other  is  insecurity 
of  employment  and  a  servile  dependence  en- 
forced by  the  whip  of  hunger,  more  inexora- 
ble than  all  tyrants.  The  moral  effects  of  this 
condition  are  just  what  we  should  expect.  Pau- 
perism has  become  a  subject  worthy  of  scien- 
tific study.  Crime  has  increased.  Intemper- 
ance has  become  frightful,  because  life  is  a 
dreary  burden  of  work,  with  no  future  of  relief, 
and  food  is  poor  in  quantity  and  quality.  The 
home  is  being  disrupted,  because  the  working 
people  are  crowded  into  open  tenements  and 
the  family  cannot  meet  its  daily  wants  without 
the  help  of  wife  and  children.  And  these  evils 
do  not  tend  to  right  themselves.  We  cannot 
placidly  rely  on  any  abstraction  of  natural 
selection  to  wipe  out  crime  and  intemperance 
and  to  preserve  the  family.  Rather  do  these 
evils  multiply.     Evolution  is  not  always  devel- 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  7 

opment  upwards.  A  new  race  of  men  is  being 
created  with  inherited  traits  of  physical  and 
moral  degeneracy,  suited  to  the  new  environ- 
ment of  the  tenement  house,  the  saloon,  and 
the  jail,  I  know  there  are  well-to-do  persons 
who  decry  such  statements  as  these,  who  pre- 
fer to  write  and  read  books  on  the  progress  of 
the  working  classes,  who  say  that  the  world  is 
growing  better.  It  is  true  that  a  part  of  the 
world  is  growing  better,  that  many  workingmcn 
are  in  better  circumstances  than  were  their 
fathers ;  but  these  are  the  skilled  and  well- 
organized  workingmcn.  The  great  mass  of 
workmen,  when  we  consider  all  their  circum- 
stances, are  no  better  off  than  they  were  thirty 
years  ago,  and  many  are  worse  off.  But,  after 
all,  men  do  not  compare  themselves  with  their 
ancestors,  but  with  their  contemporaries.  You 
cannot  appease  a  restless  workman  by  telling 
him  how  much  better  off  he  is  than  was  his 
simian  progenitor.  What  he  feels  is  his  depend- 
ence on  his  fellow-man,  who  is  growing  richer 
every  day  upon  the  fruits  of  his  own  poorly- 
paid  toil.     This,  then,  is  the  first  revelation  of 


8  THE    CIIKISTIAiV  MINISTER 

sociology  —  that  there  is  a  social  problem  grow- 
ing out  of  the  distribution  of  wealth  ;  that 
through  the  organic  nature  of  society  this 
problem  ramifies  in  all  directions,  and  appears 
in  the  tenement  house,  the  saloon,  the  jail,  the 
poorhouse,  and  that  under  the  operation  of 
existing  forces  this  problem  is  daily  becoming 
more  intense. 

Second  —  Christianity  is  the  cause  of  our 
social  prohlciiis. 

The  spirit  of  Christ,  working  in  an  evil  world, 
has,  indeed,  brought  not  peace,  but  a  sword. 
Thus  it  has  always  been  and  always  will  be. 
Why  should  we  look  upon  the  conditions  I  have 
described  as  in  any  way  objectionable.-'  Why 
not  simply  say,  "  There  are  profound  laws  of 
nature  which  cannot  be  changed,  which  cause 
these  differences.  Let  us  eat,  drink,  and  be 
merry,  because  it  is  none  of  our  business".''  No, 
we  look  upon  such  conditions  as  a  serious  prob- 
lem. But  there  would  be  no  problem  at  all, 
were  it  not  for  our  ethical  and  Christian  ideals, 
which    abhor  injustice  and    inequality.     Before 


AND   SOCIOLOGY.  9 

the  Christian  religion  had  spread  through  the 
world,  slavery  was  considered  as  the  natural 
lot  of  four-fifths  of  mankind.  This  is  the  rea- 
son why  slavery  was  no  social  problem.  Slaves 
themselves  accepted  their  conditions  as  wholly 
fitting.  But  Christ,  without  attacking  directly 
the  institution  of  slavery,  undermined  its  foun- 
dations when  he  taught  the  brotherhood  of 
man  and  the  moral  dignity  of  every  soul  before 
its  Heavenly  Father.  Slavery  could  not  long 
exist  in  a  world  where  the  religion  of  Jesus  told 
every  man  that  he  was  his  brother's  keeper. 
When  religious  equality  became  accepted  as 
the  faith  of  mankind,  there  could  be  no  peace 
until  our  laws,  our  constitutions,  and  our  courts 
recognized  political  equality.  To-day  the  prob- 
lem is  the  same.  The  man  who  has  a  birth- 
right in  heaven  equal  to  that  of  any  other  man 
must  not  remain  on  earth  the  dependant  of  his 
brother.  The  sword  of  Jesus  will  not  be 
sheathed  until  every  man  has  an  even  chance 
here  below.  Economic  equality  may  never  be 
obtained,  and,  indeed,  it  would  be  undesirable, 
because  the  needs  of  all   are    not    alike.     Our 


lO  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER 

needs  depend  upon  our  education,  our  culture, 
our  ability  to  make  a  good  use  of  worldly 
goods.  But  equality  of  opportunity,  free  scope 
for  development  of  such  gifts  as  we  have,  are 
the  logical  conclusions  of  Christianity.  To  be 
tied  to  the  earth  by  the  daily  necessities  of  life 
when  others,  with  no  greater  needs,  are  wasting 
the  fruits  of  our  toil,  is  the  essence  of  inequal- 
ity and  injustice.  Workingmen  themselves 
have  eagerly  accepted  this  ideal.  But  right 
here  they  bring  a  serious  charge  against  the 
Church  of  Christ.  They  say  the  Church  begs 
them  to  be  quiet  under  their  wrongs  in  this 
life,  with  the  hope  that  they  will  have  their 
reward  in  the  hereafter.  No  charge  is  urged 
more  bitterly  than  this.  If  it  be  true,  the 
Church  has  utterly  perverted  the  teachings  of 
Jesus,  and  we  have  the  striking  anomaly,  a 
source  of  constant  discord,  that  while  Chris- 
tianity has  awakened  higher  ideals  of  life 
among  the  masses  and  made  them  restless, 
the  Church  has  opposed  the  realization  of 
those  ideals  in  the  life  where  they  most  are 
needed. 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  II 

Third — //  is  tJie  failures  of  Christians  that 
perpetuate  and  intensify  social  problems. 

I  believe  that  there  is  but  one  solution  for 
social  problems.  It  is  the  bringing  of  the  two 
extremes  of  society  together,  the  wiping  out  of 
mutual  misunderstandings,  and  the  promotion 
of  mutual  acquaintance  of  each  other's  feelings, 
wants,  and  hopes.  In  other  words,  it  is  the 
introduction  of  love  into  social  relations.  The 
present  division  of  classes  results  in  exclusive- 
ness,  ignorance  of  social  conditions,  and  conse- 
quent hate.  Both  sides  need  to  know  by 
personal  contact  the  conditions  of  the  other. 
Both  sides  are  to  blame.  Wage-workers  mis- 
understand the  rich  and  hate  them.  The  well- 
to-do  misunderstand  the  workmen  and  fail  to 
give  them  sympathy.  The  fault  of  this  evil 
condition  is  in  the  Christian  Church.  Chris- 
tians possess  the  wealth  and  intelligence  of  the 
country.  It  is  their  duty  to  make  the  first  ad- 
vances. They  are  in  the  world  to  obey  the 
command  of  Jesus,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself."     This  docs  not  mean  to  make 


12  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER 

all  the  money  you  can  by  close  bargains  with 
your  uncquals  and  by  cutting  clown  employees' 
wages,  and  then  to  use  your  money  to  build  a 
college,  or  subscribe  to  some  philanthropic  so- 
ciety which  doles  out  alms  to  your  neighboring 
paupers.  It  means  to  go  yourself,  to  get  ac- 
quainted with  your  neighbors,  to  pick  out  some 
hard-worked  mechanic,  some  shiftless  pauper, 
some  slave  of  drink,  and  love  him.  Christians 
have  not  loved  their  neighbors.  They  have 
hired  somebody  else  to  love  them.  They  have 
left  it  to  the  women.  Thus  they  have  inten- 
sified social  antagonisms.  They  have  made  it 
impossible  to  understand  the  grievances  and 
the  wants  of  workingmen.  They  do  not  study 
these  grievances  and  these  wants,  because  they 
do  not  love  the  unprivileged  and  neglected 
classes. 

Fourth — TJic  failures  of  CJiristians  are  due 
to  t]ie  failures  of  CJiristian  preachers. 

The  Christian  ministers  arc  the  leaders  of 
Christian  activities  as  well  as  Christian 
thought.     They  give   direction  to   these  activ- 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  1 3 

ities.  The  success  of  foreign  missions  is  due 
to  the  frequent  exhortations  of  Christian  min- 
isters. Monthly  prayer  meetings,  with  reports 
from  the  foreign  field,  and  the  general  stimulus 
to  this  line  of  work,  are  due  to  the  activity  of 
the  Christian  pastor.  The  minister  should  do 
the  same  for  social  missions.  If  he  should 
take  a  hearty  interest  in  social  questions,  if  he 
should  hear  the  bitter  cry  of  the  home  heathen, 
if  he  should  take  it  upon  himself  to  present 
their  cause,  soon  the  Church  would  follow  in 
his  steps,  and  no  longer  could  the  blame  for 
social  ills  be  laid  at  the  doors  of  Christians. 
Christianity  is  the  only  solution  for  social 
problems,  and  society  is  waiting  for  the  Chris- 
tian minister  to  lead  the  way. 

There  are  two  things  which  the  minister 
must  do  at  present.  The  first  is  to  show  the 
facts.  This  is  the  urgent  need  of  the  hour. 
His  congregation  must  learn  that  there  are 
ominous  social  wrongs  to  be  righted.  The 
preacher  should  be  a  student  of  social  science. 
He  should  study  books.  A  small  library,  wisely 
selected    for    him    by    some    sociologist,    and 


14  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER 

costing  from  thirty  to  fifty  dollars,  would  be 
found  amply  sufficient  for  beginning  his  work. 
But  equally  as  well  should  he  study  persons 
and  families.  He  should  find  the  facts  by 
personal  contact.  Then  he  should  present 
facts  prayerfully.  Let  him  avoid  sensational- 
ism as  he  would  sin.  He  will  succeed  in  this 
if  his  purpose  be  truly  to  benefit  those  whose 
cause  he  presents. 

The  second  thing  for  the  preacher  to  do 
is  to  show  the  responsibility  of  Christians  for 
these  conditions.  We  have  got  beyond  that 
age  of  materialism  which  ascribes  social  con- 
ditions to  workings  of  so-called  natural  laws 
which  man  cannot  modify.  Social  conditions 
are  the  result  of  the  human  will.  This  human 
will  finds  expression  in  two  ways  —  in  the 
every-day  activities  of  individuals  and  in  legis- 
lation. These  two  facts  are  the  causes  of 
social  conditions,  and  they  are  simply  the 
manifestations  of  the  human  will  acting  indi- 
vidually or  collectively.  In  our  country  this 
means  the  Christian  human  will ;  for  it  is  the 
Christians  whose  wealth  and  intelligence   con- 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  1 5 

trol  legislation,  and  whose  wealth  and  intelli- 
gence in  private  affairs  outweigh  all  other 
private  influences.  You  may  say  that  there 
are  also  natural  conditions  which  are  the  causes 
of  social  conditions,  such  as  the  fact  that  a 
man  must  work  for  a  living,  or  that  great  law, 
which  is  the  corner  stone  of  political  economy, 
the  law  of  diminishing  returns.  True,  there 
are  natural  conditions,  but  natural  conditions 
have  become  of  inferior  significance.  A  cen- 
tury ago,  or  among  uncivilized  tribes,  they 
were  all-important.  But  the  machinery  and 
inventions,  the  aids  to  production,  all  that  go 
to  make  up  the  wealth  of  our  country,  are  so 
abounding  that  if  the  American  people  seri- 
ously wished  it,  there  would  not  be  an  able- 
bodied  pauper  or  a  tramp  among  us.  If  we 
wished  it,  there  would  be  no  involuntary  idle- 
ness, which  is  the  prolific  parent  of  voluntary 
idleness. 

Now,  I  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  Christian 
ministers  to  convict  sinners  of  their  sins. 
They  must  first  convict  them  before  conver- 
sion   is    possi])le.       Here    is    the  great    sin    of 


l6  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER 

Christians — we  do  not  acknowledge  that  we 
are  our  brothers'  keepers  ;  we  do  not  love  our 
neighbors.  We  pass  by  on  the  other  side. 
We  are  "  exclusive."  Here,  then,  is  the  crucial 
duty  to  the  minister,  a  hard  task,  indeed,  but 
one  that  Jesus  met  ;  and  he  has  shown  us  how 
to  meet  it.  Christians  must  learn  that  they, 
and  they  alone,  are  responsible  if  the  ills  of 
society  are  allowed  to  continue.  And  the 
preacher  is  the  man  to  tell  them  so. 

With  the  conviction  of  sins  comes  the  cry, 
"  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  .-*  "  Here  the 
preacher  must  be  the  guide.  He  must  show 
men  how  to  love  their  neighbors.  With  this 
practical  application  of  Christianity  is  involved 
the  answer  to  the  question,  "How  much  should 
the  work  of  the  preacher  be  modified  in  the 
direction  of  sociology  .''  "  He  cannot  go  too  far 
in  showing  facts  or  responsibilities.  But  he 
can  go  too  far  in  practical  work.  These  social 
problems  will  soon  become  political  problems. 
The  preacher  ought  not  to  become  a  politician. 
He  should  do  as  Jesus  did  ;  work  on  the  hearts 
of  men,  give  them  right  purposes,  show  them 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  1 7 

the  evils  to  be  overcome  and  the  end  to  be 
reached,  and  leave  to  them  the  ways  and  means 
for  bringing  about  the  needed  legislation.  But 
outside  of  politics  there  are  many  practical 
activities  which  the  preacher  should  lead,  and 
thereby  show  his  congregation  how  to  be  saved. 
First — and  most  important  of  all  —  he  should 
lead  his  people  in  becoming  friends  to  the 
neglected  classes.  He  should  himself  become 
acquainted  with  two  or  three  such  families. 
He  should  be  acquainted  with  the  police  court, 
the  jail,  the  workhouse,  and  the  almshouse. 
He  should  induce  every  member  of  his  church 
to  take  one  family  or  one  individual,  and  to 
love  that  family  or  individual.  They  should 
not  limit  their  work  to  the  poor,  the  criminal, 
and  the  idle  alone,  but  to  all  who  are  out  of  the 
Church,  and  whose  necessities  compel  them  to 
live  a  modest  life.  Where  the  poor  are  con- 
cerned, let  the  preacher  resolutely  stand  against 
giving  them  alms.  The  neglected  classes  want 
not  alms,  but  friends  ;  and  what  a  vantage 
ground  the  friend  has  over  the  almsgiver ! 
He  only  can  get  at  the  hearts  of  people  whose 


1 8  THE    CHRISTIAN-  MINISTER 

lives  have  been  spent  in  trying  to  deceive  phi- 
lanthropists. As  a  friend  he  should  not  limit 
himself  to  the  single  work  of  converting  to 
Christianity.  He  should  learn  from  social  sci- 
ence that  the  body  must  be  saved  before  the 
soul.  He  should  give  help  in  every  way  that 
is  needed  —  help  to  get  employment,  help  to 
economize  earnings.  He  should  show  them 
how  to  buy  their  clothes  and  food,  how  to  cook, 
how  to  read  books,  how  to  enjoy  themselves,  in 
fine,  how  to  live.  If  he  love  them,  he  will  see 
where  is  their  greatest  need. 

The  preacher  should  see  to  it  that  every 
church  member  becomes  a  social  missionary. 
It  is  usually  taken  for  granted  when  a  proposi- 
tion like  the  foregoing  is  made  that  the  men 
are  to  furnish  the  money  and  the  women  to  do 
the  work.  A  heresy  more  pernicious  has  never 
rent  the  Church.  What  these  people  need  is 
often  simply  business  qualities,  the  ability  to 
save  money  and  to  apply  their  labor  more 
effectually  and  systematically.  Where  the  hus- 
band is  most  to  blame  for  the  poor  condition 
of  his  family,  no  woman  visitor  can  have  any 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  1 9 

influence.  It  needs  an  energetic,  prosperous 
business  man  with  a  heart  of  love  to  put  a 
backbone  into  a  man  and  help  him  along  the 
lines  of  his  own  success.  Moreover,  the  rich 
man  needs  this  personal  contact  as  much  as 
the  poor.  He  can  never  have  proper  ideas 
of  philanthropy,  can  never  learn  to  love  his 
brother  until  he  knows  him.  And  the  main 
object  of  the  mediating  power  of  Christianity 
will  not  be  attained  if  the  well-to-do  members 
of  the  churches  are  not  brought  into  contact 
with  the  opposite  extreme  of  society.  Here, 
then,  is  a  perennial  subject  for  the  preacher  to 
bring  before  his  congregation  :  their  responsi- 
bility for  the  neglected  classes,  and  methods  of 
meeting  that  responsibility. 

Second — I  do  not  think  it  too  much  for  the 
minister  to  devote  one-half  of  his  pulpit  work 
to  sociology.  By  this  I  mean  not  merely  the 
line  of  exhortation  and  practical  methods  just 
indicated,  but  also  sociology  in  its  broadest 
sense,  as  a  science,  showing  the  fundamental 
relations  and  principles  of  society.  Sociology 
has  rightly  been  said  to  be  one  half  of  religion  ; 


20  THE    CHRISTIAN'  MINISTER 

theology  is  the  other  half.  Each  deals  prima- 
rily with  the  individual  man,  but  with  the  indi- 
vidual in  certain  relations.  Theology  considers 
man  in  his  relations  to  God  ;  sociology  in  his 
relations  to  his  fellow-men.  If,  then,  ministers 
instruct  their  hearers  about  the  nature  of  God, 
should  they  not  instruct  them  equally  about  the 
nature  of  society }  If  their  exhortations  be 
directed  towards  love  for  God,  should  not  equal 
attention  be  given  to  love  to  man  ?  If  they 
show  them  how  to  love  God,  should  they  not 
show  them  how  to  love  man  .-*  The  Bible  gives 
abundant  precedents  for  this  kind  of  preaching. 
What  a  wealth  of  social  philosophy  you  can  get 
from  that  book  !  What  a  never-failing  source 
of  inspiring  sermons  can  be  found  in  Christ's 
social  and  economic  teachings  ! 

It  is  true  that  ministers  do  devote  a  very 
great  part  of  their  work  to  enforcing  the  duty 
of  love  towards  our  fellow-men.  But  this  is 
not  enough.  There  is  a  good  love  and  a  bad 
love.  The  greater  part  of  the  history  of  Church 
charities  is  simply  a  history  of  pauperization. 
People  need  not  only  the  heart  of  love,  but  also 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  21 

the  knowledge  wisely  to  guide  their  love.  This 
can  be  derived  only  from  the  science  of  sociol- 
ogy. The  effects  of  social  activities  are  far- 
reaching  and  occult.  No  off-hand  philanthropy 
can  excuse  itself  with  the  plea  that  the  heart  is 
right,  therefore  God  will  care  for  the  results. 
Such  a  philosophy  makes  simply  fanatics.  Here 
social  science  can  come  to  our  aid.  The  great 
object  of  sociology  is  to  teach  us  how  to  love 
our  neighbors.  As  a  science,  it  is  already  de- 
veloped so  far  that  its  precepts  may  be  taken 
as  a  safe  guide.  The  preacher  who  has  at  hand 
the  investigations  of  its  leaders  would  find  that 
one-half  his  time  is  not  enough  to  reveal  the 
wealth  of  sound  practical  love  to  man  which  they 
contain.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  no 
better  use  could  be  made  of  the  Sunday  evening 
service  than  to  devote  it  to  a  course  of  sermons 
on  sociology.  Let  the  minister  clothe  in  Chris- 
tian eloquence  the  results  of  science.  He 
should  begin  with  the  organic  nature  of  society, 
showing  that  it  is  based  properly  on  Christian 
ethics  ;  then  the  nature  and  functions  of  the 
State   as   a   mighty   force    in   furthering  God's 


22  THE   CHRISTIAN  MIXISTER 

kingdom  and  establishing  righteous  relations 
among  men ;  then  the  family  and  the  home 
as  the  centre  from  which  radiate  all  the  good 
and  all  the  evil  of  our  society,  where  the  heri- 
tage of  love  or  of  hate  is  handed  down  to  future 
generations  along  with  life  itself.  From  the 
State  and  the  family,  as  the  two  fundamental 
institutions  of  society,  we  advance  to  the  social 
problems  of  the  day.  To  all  of  these  Christian 
ethics  should  be  applied.  Marriage  and  divorce, 
intemperance,  crime,  pauperism  and  poverty, 
wealth  and  luxury,  are  all  special  phases  of  the 
social  organism  and  have  their  roots  deep  in 
the  substance  of  society  itself.  These  can  be 
presented  by  the  minister  in  a  form  at  once 
popular  and  scientific.  Throughout  all  these 
discourses  he  should  keep  in  view  the  main 
object  of  Christianity,  to  bring  the  extremes  of 
society  together  in  brotherly  love.  The  ablest 
discussions  of  sociology  will  be  mere  word- 
making,  if  they  do  not  tend  to  this  result.  But 
I  believe  that  a  community  which  should  have 
in  its  midst  weekly  ministrations  of  tliis  sort 
for  a  vcar  or  more,  would  be  stirred  to  its  foun- 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  23 

dations  and  moved  as  never  before  by  the  love 
of  humanity. 

I  long  to  see  the  day  when  the  leadership  in 
the  social  movements  of  our  time  will  be  taken 
from  the  lawyer  and  the  newspaper  and  given 
to  the  Christian  minister.  We  cannot  expect 
to  have  a  society  based  on  righteousness  so 
long  as  our  social  philosophy  is  given  to  us  by 
editors  and  lawyers.  They  are  put  forward  to 
favor  special  interests.  But  where  is  the  advo- 
cate of  the  masses,  of  the  great  brotherhood  of 
man  .-'  Where  is  the  truly  judicial  mind,  whose 
purpose  it  is  to  bring  to  pass  the  kingdom  of 
God  on  earth  .-•  The  Christian  preachers  have 
failed  to  see  their  vantage  ground,  or,  seeing 
it,  have  failed  to  take  it.  They  have  confined 
their  thoughts  to  individual  righteousness,  and 
have  failed  to  take  in  the  broad  field  of  social 
righteousness.  The  people  are  eager  for 
knowledge  on  social  questions.  They  need  to 
know  what  righteousness  is,  not  merely  for  the 
individual,  but  for  society.  So  long  has  dust 
been  thrown  into  their  eyes  by  passionate  par- 
tisans, that  we  may  now  see  them   turning  in 


24  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER 

disgust  and  scepticism  to  their  own  turbulent 
impulses.  I  do  not  believe  the  masses  of  the 
people  are  wholly  wrong  at  heart.  They  have 
simply  lost  faith  in  their  would-be  leaders  and 
know  not  where  to  turn.  Here  is  the  oppor- 
tunity for  the  preacher  of  social  righteousness 
—  not  the  man  who  makes  special  pleas,  but 
the  man  who  understands  the  nature  of  society 
and  believes  in  God.  In  the  pulpit  is  where 
he  belongs ;  and  once  a  week,  more  powerfully 
than  editor  or  lawyer,  he  can  build  up  about 
him  a  community  where  every  man  will  love 
and  help  his  neighbor,  where  happiness  will 
be  diffused,  and  righteousness  be  easier  than 
sin. 

Third —  It  is  impossible  to  separate  the 
strictly  pulpit  work  of  the  minister  from  his 
general  religious  and  social  work.  The  pulpit 
is  simply  the  place  for  the  public  expression 
of  his  every-day  work.  The  topics  which  he 
discusses  there  grow  out  of  the  needs  of  his 
congregation  and  community,  as  he  finds  them 
day  by  day.  The  character  of  his  pulpit  work 
depends  upon  the  character  of  his  Church  work. 


AND  SOCIOLOGY.  2$ 

Consequently,  it  would  seem  that  the  Church 
ought  to  be  organized  on  such  a  plan  as  to  give 
the  minister  opportunity  for  social  study  and 
social  work.  By  this  I  mean  that  the  Church 
ought  to  take  on  a  popular,  week-day  character. 
It  should  be  a  centre  for  amusements,  athletics, 
debating  clubs,  and  reading  circles.  It  should 
be  a  people's  church  in  the  fullest  sense. 
This  idea  is  becoming  a  familiar  one.  In  order 
to  carry  out  successfully  a  course  of  sermons 
on  sociology,  the  preacher  needs  to  stimulate 
the  reading  and  conversation  and  co-operation 
of  his  parishioners.  He  needs  to  bring  in  out- 
side elements,  workingmen  and  others,  for  mu- 
tual conference.  He  needs  to  make  his  church 
a  recognized  centre  for  social  and  helpful 
activities.  There  should  be  a  church  library 
on  social  and  economic  subjects.  Prayer 
meetings  should  be  places  for  reports  from 
church  members  as  to  what  they  have  done  for 
families  or  individuals  whom  they  are  loving. 
Many  other  features  of  Church  work  will 
readily  be  suggested  to  the  preacher  who  at- 
tempts   to    introduce    thoughtful    sermons    on 


26  THE    CHRISTIAN  MINISTER. 

sociology  and   to   inspire    his  people  with   the 
social  missionary  spirit. 

To  sum  up  this  matter  of  the  character  of 
the  Church  and  its  life  as  well  as  that  of  the 
preacher's  social  and  pulpit  work  — they  should 
all  be  determined  by  the  great  feature  of 
Christianity  which  I  have  already  emphasized, 
its  mediating  power  in  drawing  social  classes 
together.  Here  is  where  Christianity  strikes 
at  the  root  of  social  ills,  and  there  is  no  other 
power  in  the  community  that  can  so  strike. 
We  must  all  come  around  to  the  simple  gospel 
of  Christ,  and  we  must  apply  this  gospel  in  its 
right  proportions,  realizing  that  religion  is  love 
to  God,  and  sociology  love  to  man,  and  on 
these  two  hang  all  the  law  and  all  preaching. 


THE  CHURCH 
AND  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  PROBLEM 
OF  POVERTY. 

The  problem  of  poverty  is  not  an  isolated 
problem.  It  is  a  part  of  all  the  social  ques- 
tions of  to-day — of  the  questions  of  labor,  of 
crime,  of  intemperance.  On  account  of  the 
organic  nature  of  society  these  problems  are 
laced  and  interlaced  —  they  act  and  react  on 
one  another.  The  causes  and  remedies  of 
poverty  can  be  comprehended  only  through  an 
understanding  of  its  relations  to  the  whole 
social  organism  ;  and  this  involves  a  thorough 
acquaintance  with  human  nature,  with  the  laws 
of  psychology  and  biology. 

It  is  in  this  broad  aspect  that  I  believe  it 
most  profitable  to  consider  this  question.  And 
it  will  be  found  that  the  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion of  poverty  —  if  there  be  a  solution  —  will  be 
also  the  solution  of  the  questions  of  labor,  the 
family,  city  government,  crime,  intemperance, 
29 


30  THE    CHURCH 

Furthermore,  the  problem  of  poverty  —  or 
any  other  social  problem  —  to  my  mind  has  no 
significance  except  as  it  is  a  religious  problem. 
Man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  His  possi- 
bilities are  divine  ;  and  it  is  an  appalling  sight 
to  see  the  godlike  crushed  out  of  such  a  being 
by  poverty,  by  crime,  by  intemperance,  by  his 
social  and  industrial  surroundings.  When  the 
Christian  Church  awakes  to  the  daily  life  in 
the  dark  places  about  her,  and  understands  the 
essential  religious  nature  of  the  problems  of 
labor,  poverty,  monopoly,  then  may  these  prob- 
lems be  put  in  the  true  way  of  solution. 

Modern  science  teaches  the  unity  of  human 
nature.  Psychology,  physiology,  sociology,  all 
the  sciences  which  treat  of  man,  declare  that 
the  two  elements  of  which  he  is  composed  — 
body  and  soul  —  are  not  antagonistic  but  inter- 
dependent. Yet  to-day  many  of  us  are  holding 
to  that  mediaeval  doctrine  of  the  eternal  opposi- 
tion between  body  and  soul.  It  was  a  doctrine 
which  in  its  day  of  ascendency  sequestered 
good  men  as  ascetics  and  hermits,  and  left  bad 
men  in  unhampered  control  of  practical  affairs. 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  3 1 

To-day  this  doctrine  leads  the  Christian  Church 
to  preach  salvation  only  for  a  future  life  — 
salvation  for  the  soul  apart  from  the  body. 
Oppressive  and  unjust  conditions  in  this  life 
are  looked  upon  as  ordained  means  of  grace  to 
discipline  the  soul  and  turn  its  longings  towards 
the  hereafter. 

As  a  result  of  this  doctrine,  the  Church 
shrinks  from  contact  with  practical  life,  and 
has  looked  complacently  on  while  poverty  has 
increased,  crime  has  leaped  forward,  intemper- 
ance has  become  a  giant.  I  do  not  say  that 
this  is  the  attitude  of  the  whole  Church  to-day. 
But  the  Church's  ignorance  of  modern  science, 
and  her  bias  toward  the  old  dogma,  still  appear 
in  the  way  in  which  she  attacks  only  the  symp- 
toms and  results  of  social  disease,  and  not  the 
causes.  The  intemperance  question  is  to  be 
solved  simply  by  abolishing  the  saloon  —  re- 
gardless of  the  fact  that  intemperance  itself  is 
the  result  of  profound  social  conditions.  Sun- 
day labor  is  the  only  labor  problem  attacked 
—  and  that  only  in  its  spectacular  and  rela- 
tively harmless  occasions  —  and  the  irresistible 


32  THE   CHURCH 

economic  necessities  of  modern  civilization 
which  compel  Sunday  labor  are  overlooked. 
Corrupt  city  government  is  ascribed,  not  to  its 
real  causes,  but  to  the  sinfulness  of  politicians 
—  whereas  the  fact  is  that  in  city  politics  all 
our  political  and  social  machinery  is  so  ar- 
ranged that  the  best  men  are,  as  a  rule,  barred 
from  success. 

The  sciences  of  man  to-day  teach  us  the 
mutual  harmony  and  afifinity  of  body  and  soul. 
They  show  how  these  shape  and  re-shape  each 
the  other.  There  is  no  alienation,  there  is  no 
antagonism  between  them.  The  soul  is  simply 
the  expression  and  flower  of  the  body.  It  is 
that  in  the  body  which  experiences  all  the 
thoughts  and  emotions,  the  ideals  and  aspira- 
tions. These  may  be  good  or  bad.  They  may 
be  emotions  and  ideals  of  love  or  hate,  of  faith 
or  infidelity,  of  hope  or  despair.  But,  whatever 
they  are,  they  depend  upon  the  body.  Bodily 
wants  are  the  primal  and  indispensable  wants. 
With  the  infant  and  the  child  they  are  the  only 
wants.  And  how  eagerly  loving  parents  attend 
to  the  physical  wants  of  the  little  one,  rejoicing 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  33 

as  their  reward  in  the  slowly  budding  signs  of 
affection  and  aspiration  —  the  beautiful  tokens 
of  the  unfolding  spirit. 

But  how  shall  this  soul  unfold  and  develop  ? 
Sociology,  based  as  it  is  upon  the  sciences  of 
biology,  tells  us  it  is  through  that  univer- 
sal law  of  life  —  adaptation  to  environment. 
Adaptation  is  direct  and  indirect ;  the  first  is 
effected  through  use  and  disuse  of  faculties  ; 
the  second  through  heredity.  Thus  the  in- 
dividual, both  in  his  body  and  his  soul,  in  the 
process  of  generations  becomes  fitted  to  his 
environment. 

Now,  it  is  society  that  furnishes  the  environ- 
ment of  the  individual.  Society  determines 
the  conditions  under  which  his  physical  and 
spiritual  powers  shall  be  permitted  to  develop. 
Society  creates  great  social  classes,  and  assigns 
the  individual,  even  before  his  birth,  and  on 
through  infancy,  youth,  and  manhood,  to  one 
of  these  classes.  For  generations  before  his 
birth,  and  again  through  the  plastic  years  of 
childhood,  his  particular  social  class  is  shap- 
ing and  conditioning   his  physical  and  mental 


34  THE    CHURCH 

powers,  his  appetites,  emotions,  and  ideals.  In 
our  day  these  social  classes  are  based  to  a  large 
extent  on  property.  It  has  been  possible,  here- 
tofore, for  individuals  to  pass  from  one  social 
class  to  another ;  but  these  class  lines  have  be- 
come more  rigid,  and  the  individual,  if  his  lot 
be  in  the  unpropertied  class,  is  destined,  as  a 
rule,  to  remain  there.  His  economic  resources 
determine,  by  a  resistless  pressure,  what  shall 
be  his  social  environment.  I  will  indicate 
briefly  some  of  the  main  characteristics  of  this 
social  environment  as  it  has  developed  in  our 
day,  and  show  its  influence  upon  the  individual. 
The  first  is  that  condition  of  the  working 
classes  which  can  be  characterized  as  none 
other  than  wage-slavery.  By  wage-slavery  I 
mean  the  dependence  of  one  man  upon  the 
arbitrary  will  of  another  for  the  opportunity  to 
earn  a  living.  This  is  the  essential  evil  in  the 
wide  extremes  of  wealth  of  to-day.  It  is  the 
ownership  of  all  the  opportunities  of  labor  — 
the  factories,  the  railways  —  by  single  corpora- 
tions, or  corporations  acting  as  one,  and  their 
power  to  discharge  workingmen  for  any  reasons 


AND    THE   PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  35 

they  think  fit.  This  is  an  imperial  power,  and 
may  become  a  tyranny.  It  can  be  remedied 
only  by  recognizing  in  man  as  one  of  his  in- 
alienable rights,  along  with  life  and  liberty,  the 
right  to  employment.  We  are  apt  to  think  that 
the  rights  to  life  and  liberty  are  aboriginal  and 
natural,  and  we  marvel  at  those  who  talk  of 
new  rights  as  innovators  and  disturbers;  yet 
there  was  a  time  when  our  ancestors  recog- 
nized neither  the  right  to  life  nor  to  liberty. 
Among  primitive  peoples  enemies  were  slaugh- 
tered as  a  matter  of  course,  like  wild  animals. 
Old  and  decrepit  people,  the  sick  and  feeble, 
the  defective  infants,  were  exposed  and  sacri- 
ficed simply  because  they  were  a  burden.  It 
was  only  through  centuries  of  moral  develop- 
ment that  the  right  to  life  became  a  sacred 
right. 

And  so  with  the  right  to  freedom.  When 
slavery  was  substituted  for  slaughter  it  marked 
an  ethical  advance,  for  it  helped  men  to  realize 
the  right  to  life.  Slavery  taught  habits  of  in- 
dustry and  made  possible  the  growth  of  civili- 
zation;  but  in  time,  when  Christianity  taught 


36  THE    CHURCH 

ideas  of  man's  equality  and  tlie  sacredness  of 
the  human  soul,  slavery  could  no  longer  exist. 
Man's  moral  ideas  had  advanced  too  far.  Free- 
dom has  now  taken  its  place.  But  the  Chris- 
tian who  believes  in  the  fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  who  studies  the 
working  classes  at  first  hand,  can  see  that 
there  is  still  lacking  a  true  and  manly  freedom. 
Robert  Burns  understood  the  secret  when  he 
wrote  :  — 

"  See  yonder  poor,  o'erlabored  wight, 
So  abject,  mean  and  vile. 
Who  begs  a  brother  of  the  earth 
To  give  him  leave  to  toil." 

And  a  friend  of  mine,  an  educated  man,  who 
has  given  years  of  time  and  strength  in  the 
cause  of  the  laborers,  has  told  me  that  now  he 
understands  the  problem  that  Moses  faced  for 
a  lifetime  when  he  tried  to  lead  a  nation  of 
slaves  forth  to  freedom.  The  workingman  of 
to-day,  unless  protected  by  his  powerful  labor 
union,  is  slavish  in  his  instincts.  I  speak  of 
laborers  as  a  class,  for  there  are  noble  excep- 
tions.    He  is  distrustful,  jealous,   incapable  of 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  ^J 

co-operation,  treacherous  to  benefactors  and 
fellow-laborers,  and  an  eye-servant.  These 
pitiful  qualities  of  his  soul  are  but  the  natural 
fruit  of  his  unstable,  dependent  conditions  of 
livelihood.  How  is  Christianity  to  reach  such 
a  man  with  its  noble  qualities  of  truth,  love, 
honor,  fidelity,  manliness,  until  it  has  first 
created  for  him  those  physical  conditions  of 
life  and  true  independence  out  of  which  such 
qualities  can  spring? 

Again,  what  can  we  expect  to  be  the  soul- 
life  of  the  millions  in  our  country  who  cannot 
find  regular  honest  work  to  do?  The  serious- 
ness of  the  problem  of  poverty  to-day  is  not 
that  there  are  greater  numbers  of  poor,  rela- 
tive to  the  total  population,  than  ever  before, 
but  that  greater  numbers  are  constantly  on  the 
verge  of  poverty.  The  fluctuations  of  modern 
industries,  the  panics  and  crises  and  industrial 
depressions  throughout  the  world,  are  con- 
stantly shoving  armies  of  men  over  the  pov- 
erty line.  And  even  in  our  best  of  times  there 
are  more  men  to  work  than  places  to  work. 
The  problem  of  the  unemployed  is  a  problem 

409159 


38  THE   CHURCH 

of  Christianity.  Involuntary  idleness  and  irreg- 
ular employment  are  the  antichrist  of  to-day 
that  drives  men  and  women  into  crime,  intem- 
perance, and  shame. 

You  may  say  that  the  problem  of  the  unem- 
ployed is  the  problem  of  the  inefficient.  Not 
wholly  true,  for  there  have  always  been  the 
inefficient  ;  but  lack  of  employment  in  our 
country  dates  from  the  close  of  the  civil  war 
and  the  panic  of  1873.  Yet  suppose  your 
contention  be  true  —  does  it  not  prove  that 
the  Church  has  not  taken  hold  of  religion  in 
earnest  until  she  has  studied  the  causes  and 
remedies  of  inefficiency  ? 

What,  next,  can  the  Church  expect  the  spirit- 
ual possibilities  to  be  of  men  who  are  doomed 
to  long  and  exhausting  hours  of  labor ;  who 
work  seven  days  in  the  week,  and  have  no 
holidays  or  vacations  except  those  granted  by 
pitiful  accidents  and  sickness  ?  It  is  not  only 
absurd,  it  is  cruel,  to  expect  such  men  to  be- 
come Christians.  Yet  do  we  hear  the  Church 
or  the  ministers  crying  out  against  tliis  worse 
than  chattel  slavery  }     I  should  have  thought 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  39 

we  should  have  heard  the  whole  Christian 
Church  in  America  rise  in  one  indignant  pro- 
test when  the  fact  was  brought  out,  in  the 
strike  of  Buffalo  switchmen,  that  men  had  been 
compelled  to  work  in  the  Buffalo  yards  for 
thirty-six  consecutive  hours.  Yet  the  Church 
and  the  ministry  as  a  whole  looked  on  in  in- 
difference, or  else  rebuked  the  men  for  anarchy 
and  for  stopping  the  wheels  of  commerce. 
Had  the  Church  done  its  duty  beforehand,  and 
made  any  effort  to  know  the  life  of  working- 
men,  as  Jesus  did,  there  never  would  have 
been  occasion  for  a  strike,  because  hours  of 
labor  would  have  been  limited  to  a  point  con- 
sistent with  Christian  manhood. 

Again,  there  can  be  no  hope  for  God's  king- 
dom on  earth  except  through  the  stability  and 
purity  of  the  home.  This  is  the  one  social 
institution  for  which  Jesus  Christ  gave  us  defi- 
nite regulations.  Yet,  to-day,  among  the  poor- 
est classes,  home  is  a  travesty.  The  mother 
must  work  to  compensate  the  father's  enforced 
idleness  and  low  pay,  and  her  children  come 
into    the    world    with     feeble    bodies,    broken 


40  THE   CHURCH 

nerves,  and  moral  impotence.  It  has  been  said 
that  to  educate  a  child  you  must  begin  with 
his  great-grandfather.  More  to  the  point  is 
it  that  if  you  would  have  a  people  intelligent, 
moral,  and  Christian,  you  must  relieve  their 
mothers  and  grandmothers  from  poverty  and 
excessive  toil.  The  home  is  the  place  where, 
most  of  all,  environment  tells.  Overwork  for 
women  and  children  is  the  physical  basis  for 
crime,  intemperance,  and  vice.  The  youth,  the 
man,  or  the  woman  who  has  grown  up  in  a 
home  —  or  the  mockery  of  a  home  —  such  as 
this,  can  never  escape  from  the  prison  of  his 
own  faltering  body.  His  soul,  as  long  as  its 
physical  house  endures,  is  incapable  of  stead- 
fast, noble  impulses.  The  appeals  of  Chris- 
tianity are  incomprehensible  to  him.  And  yet 
who  has  heard  that  the  Church,  in  its  assem- 
blies, its  pulpit,  its  press,  or  its  hundreds  of 
committees  or  sub-organizations,  has  taken  up 
systematically  the  cause  of  the  women  and  the 
children  workers  .-*  No,  her  voice  has  not  been 
heard  for  reforms  that  threaten  profits.  Her 
appeal  has  been  for  men  to  share  their  profits 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  4 1 

with    her  —  to  build    her   magnificent   temples 
and  swell  her  missionary  accounts. 

Other  features  of  the  modern  environment 
of  the  working  classes  might  be  mentioned. 
While  there  are  many  hopeful  features,  the 
majority  are  depressing.  I  turn  now  to  one 
or  two  specific  reforms,  which  the  science  of 
sociology  has  indicated,  and  note  the  reception 
the  church  has  accorded  them.  Crime  has 
increased  in  forty  years  five  times  as  fast  as 
population.  Yet  ministers  of  the  gospel  know 
little  of  that  divine  science,  penology.  Our 
city  workhouses  to-day  contain  prisoners  who 
have  been  committed  from  fifty  to  a  hundred 
and  fifty  times,  and  very  little  thoughtful  Chris- 
tian effort  is  made  toward  their  regeneration. 
And  all  this  occurs  in  the  same  city  and  within 
sound  of  the  minister's  voice.  Yet  the  minis- 
ters go  their  way,  week  after  week,  in  ignor- 
ance of  these  sin-sick  souls — in  prison,  and 
they  visited  them  not.  Now,  scientific  penol- 
ogy has  already  pointed  out  the  way  firmly,  yet 
gently,  to  cure  them  ;  yet  how  few  are  the  min- 
isters who  know  anything  about  prison  reform. 


42  THE    CHURCH 

The  case  is  similar  witli  intemperance.  It 
is  treated  solely  as  a  sin,  to  be  exorcised  by 
repentance  and  punishment ;  but  science  is 
showing  that  it  is  also  a  disease,  largely  the 
result  of  industrial  conditions — a  disease  to  be 
treated  like  insanity.  And  ministers  exclaim 
against  such  conclusions,  as  tending  to  weaken 
the  springs  of  duty,  and  to  free  men  from  re- 
sponsibility ;  therefore  they  strike  only  at  the 
symptoms  of  the  disease,  the  saloon, —  a  crude 
kind  of  social  therapeutics.  Christians,  along 
with  others,  have  made  wonderful  progress  in 
utilizing  the  results  of  physical  science,  steam, 
and  electricity,  but  they  know  little  of  the 
results  of  social  science. 

I  have  insisted,  as  a  lesson  of  science,  on  the 
unity  of  human  nature,  and  the  priority  of 
man's  physical  organism  in  all  the  walks  of 
life ;  yet  I  do  not  rule  out  the  eternal  verities 
of  religion  as  they  are  emphasized  to-day, — the 
sinfulness  of  man,  his  need  of  conversion,  the 
transforming  power  of  faith  in  Christ  and  im- 
mortality. Indeed,  I  believe  that  true  science 
shows  these  to  be  essential  to  social  re<rencra- 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  43 

tion.  Man,  after  all,  is  not  an  animal  :  he  is  a 
being  of  aspiration  ;  he  rises  by  his  efforts 
toward  the  ideal ;  he  is  not  to  be  lifted  up  from 
beneath  and  carried  into  the  realms  of  manhood 
and  righteousness,  but  he  is  to  be  lured  and 
won  and  inspired  by  longings  for  faith,  hope, 
love ;  yet  he  is  at  the  same  time  the  creature 
of  his  environment.  The  inexorable  earthly 
wants  for  food,  clothing,  shelter,  press  daily 
upon  him.  If  he  be  confident  that  these  will 
be  regularly  supplied  in  a  self-reliant  way,  and 
if  in  supplying  them  his  bodily  and  spiritual 
powers  be  not  basely  exhausted,  then  he  may 
rise  above  the  animal  and  reach  out  for  the 
noble  joys  of  the  soul ;  then,  and  then  only, 
can  religion  touch  him. 

This  is  the  fundamental  error  of  the  Church. 
She  has  made  her  spiritual  appeal  to  men  who 
could  not  possibly  do  more  than  supply  their 
earthly  wants,  and  has  made  no  effort  to  help 
them  where  most  they  needed  help.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  they  revile  her  .■*  The  Church 
has  left  the  radical  religious  question,  the  bet- 
terment of    social    conditions,  to   atheists    and 


44  THE    CHURCH 

agnostics.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  efforts  at  so- 
cial reform  hitherto  have  risen  no  higher  than 
materialism  and  mammonism  ?  The  Church  is 
to  blame  that  she  has  withdrawn  from  the  field 
where  God  and  duty  and  the  example  of  her 
Saviour  called  her  to  lead,  and  left  it  to  those 
who  sought  only  the  loaves  and  the  fishes.  In 
the  noble  science  of  sociology,  peculiarly  her 
own,  she  is  not  the  pioneer,  but  the  camp- 
follower. 

I  have  pointed  out  some  of  the  principal 
evils  in  the  industrial  environment  of  the  work- 
ing classes,  and  have  shown  the  duty  of  the 
Church  to  consider  and  remedy  them,  and  the 
failure  of  the  Church  to  do  so.  It  will  be  said 
that  I  overlook  what  the  Church  is  already 
doing ;  no,  I  recognize  gladly  the  efforts  of 
Christians  in  many  places,  especially  in  many 
of  those  overworked  and  under-appreciated 
down-town  churches,  but  I  affirm  that  my 
strictures  are  true  for  nine  out  of  every  ten 
churches  and  ministers  in  our  land. 

Now,  I  should  prove  a  fruitless  and  carping 
Jeremiah  if,  in  addition  to  what  I  have  already 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  45 

said,  I  were  unable  to  point  out  how  the  Church 
is  to  meet  these  problems,  and  to  show  that  it 
is  possible  for  her  to  meet  them.  From  what  I 
have  said,  it  follows  that  the  first  thing  to  do  is 
for  ministers  and  church  workers  to  get  infor- 
mation, and  to  learn  general  principles.  Let 
them  study  the  science  of  sociology  in  all  its 
branches,  as  they  have  studied  the  science  of 
theology.  Magnificent  work  has  been  done  in 
this  science,  and  its  best  general  and  special 
treatises  are  safe  guides  to  the  student.  The 
causes  of  phenomena  in  sociology,  as  in  every 
other  science,  lie  beneath  the  surface,  and  can- 
not be  discovered  by  the  beginning  student 
from  his  own  original  observations.  He  needs 
the  guidance  of  trained  observers  and  philo- 
sophical thinkers.  With  this  in  view  church 
libraries  on  sociology  should  be  carefully  se- 
lected, and  the  books  circulated  among  the  con- 
gregation. The  minister  should  be  a  guide  to 
the  reading  and  study  of  his  parishioners.  Fre- 
quent addresses  could  also  be  secured  from 
specialists  in  charities,  penology,  the  family, 
labor,  monopolies. 


46  THE    CHURCH 

But  books  and  lectures  can  do  little  more  than 
stimulate  and  guide.  The  essential  method  is 
to  come  into  actual  contact  with  social  condi- 
tions. For  this  purpose  there  is  no  better  way 
than  to  adopt  the  methods  and  join  in  the  work 
of  the  modern  scientific  charity.  A  charity 
organization  society  means  far  more  than  its 
name  indicates.  It  is  not  a  society  for  dis- 
pensing alms,  but  a  society  for  investigation 
and  friendship.  It  is  organized  Christian  love, 
reaching  to  the  very  root  of  all  social  ques- 
tions. A  charity  organization  society  touches 
every  social  problem  —  the  problem  of  labor,  of 
the  unemployed,  of  long  hours,  of  women  and 
children  workers,  of  city  government ;  it  offers 
the  only  true  way  of  getting  at  the  facts  which 
I  have  dwelt  upon.  The  man  who  has  assisted 
in  this  work  for  even  a  short  time  can  speak 
with  assurance.  He  knows  the  actual  condi- 
tions whereof  he  speaks.  I  should  not  feel  so 
strongly  nor  know  so  surely  the  terrible  power 
of  capital  over  labor,  through  the  denial  of  the 
right  to  employment,  had  not  work  in  a  charity 
organization  society  brought  me  into  contact 
with  individual  cases. 


AND    THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY.  47 

There  is  no  position  so  good  as  that  of 
friendly  visitor  in  a  charity  organization  soci- 
ety for  getting  beneath  our  industrial  system, 
and  understanding  its  true  significance  for  the 
hearts  and  souls  of  men.  Such  a  position  fur- 
nishes the  best  possible  opportunity  for  labora- 
tory work  in  the  science  of  sociology ;  it 
is  the  doorway  to  a  real  knowledge  of  social 
problems. 

If  I  could  prescribe  a  course  of  study  for 
every  minister  and  church  member,  I  should 
say,  enroll  as  friendly  visitor  in  your  local  char- 
ity organization  society.  Have  one  or  more 
families  assigned  to  you,  get  acquainted  with 
them,  become  their  friends,  help  them  in  every 
practical  Christian  way  except  giving  alms. 
Then,  in  your  weekly  meetings  with  other 
friendly  visitors  and  the  society's  trained  sec- 
retaries and  agents,  compare  notes  and  cases, 
and  discuss  plans  for  reforming  individual  cases 
that  are  practical  under  existing  circumstances. 
Thus  you  learn  conditions  and  evils  and  their 
causes;  you  learn  what  society  is  doing  to  meet 
the  evils  ;  you  get  an  idea  of  what  ought  to  be 


48  THE   CHURCH. 

done,  and  you  see  how  urgent  and  tremendous 
is  the  problem. 

Does  it  seem  a  hopeless  matter  to  enlist  the 
churches  in  this  kind  of  work  ?  In  German 
cities  every  citizen  is  liable  to  be  drafted  by 
the  municipal  authorities  to  serve  as  a  friendly 
visitor,  with  severe  penalties  if  he  refuses. 
Cannot  our  Christian  church  members,  filled 
with  the  life  and  example  of  Christ,  gladly  do 
for  his  little  ones  these  services  of  scientific 
love.'*  There  is  to-day  in  every  American  city 
a  pressing  need  for  such  workers.  And  I  see 
no  other  way  for  the  Church  truly  to  awake  to 
her  duty  and  her  opportunity,  and  to  learn 
what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it. 


THE  EDUCATED   MAN 
IN   POLITICS. 


THE  EDUCATED  MAN  IN  POLITICS. 

The  current  recommendations  for  the  edu- 
cated man  to  participate  in  politics  are  vague. 
The  preacher,  the  editor,  the  reformer,  urge 
him  to  go  to  the  caucus  and  see  that  good  men 
are  nominated.  Again  they  tell  him  to  be  the 
independent  voter  and  the  scratcher,  —  the  man 
who  is  always  looking  out  for  something  to 
oppose,  —  until  he  is  driven  to  believe  that  his 
only  part  in  politics  is  that  of  a  self-righteous 
and  negative  scold. 

But  there  is  something  better  for  the  scholar 
in  politics.  Not  that  he  should  fail  to  be  inde- 
pendent. This  follows  necessarily,  if  we  as- 
sume that  he  does  his  own  thinking.  But 
there  is  a  difference  between  independence  and 
stubbornness.  Independence  is  positive  and 
progressive.  Stubbornness  is  negative  and  sta- 
tionary. Independence  recognizes  that  politi- 
51 


52  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

cal  parties  are  large,  cumbersome,  unwieldy 
machines.  They  accomplish  nothing  perfectly. 
Their  one  inseparable  feature  is  compromise. 
The  independent  man  should  recognize  himself 
as  a  very  small  part  of  an  immense  enginery. 
He  should  try  to  make  his  influence  positive 
for  good,  but  he  should  remember  that  good  in 
politics  is  accomplished  only  by  moving  mas- 
sive bodies. 

But  what  is  politics .''  And  what  is  there 
in  politics  that  should  call  for  the  thought  and 
action  of  the  educated  man }  Is  politics  a 
struofecle  between  ofhce-seekers,  or  between 
classes,  or  sections  .-*  Practically  it  is  all  of 
these.  But  to  the  educated  man  it  is  some- 
thing far  deeper.  It  is  assumed  that  the 
educated  man  is  the  Christian  man.  It  may 
not  be  that  he  is  a  signer  to  any  formal  creed, 
but  if  he  has  rightly  grasped  the  fruits  of  the 
highest  education  he  must  accept  the  ethical 
teachings  of  Christianity.  The  Christian  is 
here  to  benefit  his  fellows  in  every  possible 
way,  —  physically,  mentally,  spiritually.  Two 
ways  for  doing   this  are  open  to  him.     First, 


lA^  POLITICS.  53 

in  his  private  life  he  can  be  attentive  to  the 
highest  interests  of  those  about  him,  and  by 
joining  with  others  can  form  private  associa- 
tions for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  in  igno- 
rance, weakness,  and  oppression.  Thus  arise  our 
great  charities  and  benevolences,  the  home  and 
foreign  missionary  societies,  the  temperance 
unions,  the  churches  and  Sunday-schools,  the 
associated  charities  and  prison-reform  associa- 
tions. All  these  are  the  efforts  of  individuals. 
Now,  a  very  little  work  of  this  kind  soon 
teaches  that  there  are  powerful  underlying 
evil  forces,  which  individual  effort  cannot 
reach  and  overcome.  Evil  forces  and  men  are 
everywhere,  and  have  the  same  opportunities 
and  liberties  as  the  good.  Individuals  and 
associations  cannot  cope  with  them.  They 
are  increasing  in  power  and  terror  every  day. 
Consequently,  the  educated  Christian  soon 
finds  that  he  must  look  elsewhere  for  some 
supreme  force  that  can  wipe  out  these  evil 
forces.  This  is  politics.  Politics  is  the  co- 
operation of  citizens  for  employing  the  sove- 
reign  power  of   government   to  crush  the  evil 


54  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

and  promote  the  good  forces  of  society.  Gov- 
ernment rests  ultimately  upon  force.  It  speaks 
not  with  tongues,  but  with  the  mighty  arm  of 
the  law.  It  is  the  greatest  power  for  good  that 
exists  among  men.  Where  individual  and  vol- 
untary effort  fails  because  it  cannot  say  "  Thou 
shalt,"  and  "Thou  shalt  not,"  individuals  can 
co-operate  in  politics  and  summon  to  their  aid 
the  irresistible  power  of  the  State,  whose  com- 
mands must  be  obeyed. 

Thus  the  two  ways  in  which  the  educated 
man  can  use  his  powers  to  benefit  his  fellows 
are  the  individual,  or  voluntary,  and  the  politi- 
cal, or  compulsory.  The  two  are  complemen- 
tary. The  voluntary  method  is  first.  It  can 
accomplish  much.  But  in  most  important 
points  it  fails.  Here  the  compulsory  method 
must  enter,  and  fill  out  the  measure  of  good 
which  the  voluntary  cannot  complete. 

What,  next,  should  be  the  standpoint  of  the 
educated  man  when  he  enters  practical  poli- 
tics .-*  We  have  our  answer  already.  He 
should  take  the  standpoint  of  the  working 
classes,    that     is,    of     the     class    whose     only 


IN  POLITICS.  55 

means  of  livelihood  is  the  daily  labor  of  their 
hands. 

There  are  several  reasons  for  this  position. 
The  wealthy  and  educated  classes  do  not  need 
his  help.  Our  governments,  local,  State,  and 
national,  have  hitherto  been  controlled  in  the 
interests  of  the  capitalist  and  land-owning 
classes.  Laws  on  our  statute-books  are  framed 
in  their  interests.  Also,  the  educated  classes 
have  been  simply  the  hangers-on  of  the 
wealthy.  Where  do  we  find  the  fifty-thou- 
sand-dollar lawyer  except  defending  the  in- 
terests of  monopolies  and  trusts  }  Does  the 
powerful  lobby  —  so  powerful  that  it  is  called 
the  third  house  —  does  the  lobby  that  attends 
our  councils,  legislatures,  and  Congress,  labor 
in  behalf  of  the  hand-working  masses  .■' 

But  while  these  upper  classes  do  not 
need  their  help,  the  wage-working  classes 
do  need  intelligent  and  friendly  counsel. 
They  need  powerful  influences  to  be  brought 
to  bear  for  their  benefit  upon  legislatures, 
courts,  and  executives.  They  cannot  employ 
a  lobby,  they  cannot  adequately  influence  law- 


$6  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

yers,  and  they  themselves  must  attend  plod- 
dingly to  their  hours  of  toil.  Where  can  they 
look  for  help  but  to  the  educated  man,  be  he 
lawyer,  teacher,  minister,  or  merchant  ?  And 
where  can  the  educated  man  put  in  heavier 
blows  for  his  fellows  ? 

Besides,  the  prosperity  of  the  employing 
classes  depends  upon  that  of  the  wage-earning 
classes.  The  latter  make  up  four-fifths  of  our 
population.  They  furnish  four-fifths  of  the 
markets  for  what  the  manufacturer,  the  mer- 
chant, the  farmer,  has  to  sell.  A  merchant 
prefers  a  prosperous  customer  to  a  poverty- 
stricken  one.  The  former  buys  more  goods, 
of  better  quality,  pays  higher  prices,  and 
doesn't  have  to  be  dunned  every  week  in  the 
year.  So  with  all  the  business,  employing, 
and  capitalist  classes.  Their  highest  pleasure 
should  be  to  see  the  bulk  of  their  purchasers, 
the  wage-earning  class,  get  constant  work, 
high  wages,  and  intelligent,  moral  habits  of 
expenditure. 

Lastly,  the  burden  of  unjust  laws  and  cor- 
x\\\)X.  politics  falls   more  heavily  on   the   wage- 


IN  POLITICS.  57 

earning  classes  than  on  any  other  class.  It  is 
this  class  which  is  nearest  the  margin  of 
poverty.  If  the  pressure  of  bad  laws  settle 
down  a  little  more  heavily,  it  crowds  great 
numbers  of  them  just  over  that  terrible  dead- 
line. Pauperism,  crime,  intemperance,  are  the 
result.  If  other  classes  lose  in  one  field,  they 
gain  in  another.  A  rich  man  has  wide  inter- 
ests and  wide  opportunities  for  investment. 
If  one  fail,  he  can  withdraw  from  it  and  de- 
velop the  others.  An  educated  man  can  turn 
his  hand  and  head  to  many  different  things, 
and  he  is  in  demand  from  all  sides.  But  a 
workingman  has  but  one  skill.  Daily  wages 
in  a  single  narrow  field  of  industry  is  his  only 
reliance.  The  great  majority  of  our  popula- 
tion is  destined  to  be  always  wage-workers. 
The  large  prizes  and  high  places  are  for  the 
few.  A  railway  can  have  but  one  president 
and  one  general  manager;  but  it  must  have 
ten  thousand  manual  wage-earners.  Only  one 
out  of  ten  thousand  can  possibly  rise  to  the 
highest  place ;  the  others  depend  upon  their 
wages  ;    and  if   wages  fail,   their  whole  life  is 


58  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

shattered.  Moreover,  the  wealthy  man  can 
lose  a  thousand  dollars  and  it  means  no  more 
than  the  cutting  off  a  luxury  or  two ;  but  with 
a  poor  man,  it  means  the  loss  of  his  home  and 
the  breaking  up  of  his  family.  Defective  laws, 
corrupt  administration,  dilatory  courts,  often 
prove  of  advantage  to  the  well-to-do.  But  they 
crush  the  poor  beyond  hope. 

Taking  all  these  facts  into  account,  the  edu- 
cated man  in  politics  should  place  himself  at 
the  standpoint  of  the  laborer.  Laws  should 
be  framed  and  administered,  and  courts  should 
be  guided,  with  his  interests  first  in  view.  The 
educated  man  is  the  one  to  see  that  this  is 
done. 

Having  determined  his  standpoint,  how 
shall  the  educated  man  begin  the  practical 
work  of  politics.'' 

The  first  thing  is  to  get  acquainted  with  the 
working  classes.  Visit  them  in  their  homes 
and  workshops.  See  how  they  live.  Find 
out  what  they  need  to  make  their  homes  hap- 
pier. Are  the  wife  and  children  compelled  to 
work  in  order  to  eke  out  the  family  income,'* 


IN  POLITICS.  59 

Are  the  hours  of  work  long  and  the  factory 
surroundings  unwholesome  ?  All  social  reforms 
must  centre  in  the  home  as  the  pivotal  point, 
if  improvement  is  to  be  deep  and  lasting.  Let 
the  educated  man  become  an  active  worker  in 
some  charity  organization  society.  The  object 
of  such  a  society  is  not  alms,  but  friendship. 
It  aims  to  detect  the  idle  and  fraudulent,  and 
to  help  the  honest  and  unfortunate.  Its  visi- 
tors go  regularly  to  the  homes  of  all  who  need 
help,  they  find  out  what  are  the  defects  of  such 
homes  and  the  circumstances  of  the  inmates. 

But  how  will  this  assist  the  educated  man  to 
take  part  in  politics  .'*  A  few  examples  will 
show.  A  friend  of  mine  has  been  visiting  a 
colored  family.  The  head  of  the  family  is  a 
hard-working,  sober  man.  Several  years  ago 
he  managed  to  purchase  a  little  home  on  long 
payments.  After  it  was  all  paid  for  he  sud- 
denly discovered  that  he  had  not  a  good  title, 
and  now  his  home  has  been  taken  from  him  and 
his  hard-earned  savings  have  been  lost.  My 
friend  immediately  began  to  inquire  whether 
it   will    not    be  possible  to  devise    a   plan    for 


6o  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

making  real  estate  titles  as  safe  and  simple  as 
the  title  to  a  suit  of  clothes.  He  soon  discov- 
ered that  there  is  just  such  a  plan  in  force  in 
Australia  and  in  certain  provinces  of  British 
America,  and  that  it  is  being  investigated  in 
some  parts  of  our  own  country.  He  is  now 
working  with  others  to  bring  this  plan  before 
the  legislature  of  his  State.  If  it  can  be 
adopted,  many  a  wage-worker  will  be  encour- 
aged in  habits  of  thrift  and  love  of  home, 
besides  the  stimulus  it  would  give  to  business 
in  general. 

Again,  the  associated  charities  of  a  certain 
village  have  been  looking  up  some  wayward 
boys  and  sending  them  to  the  reform  school 
of  their  State.  The  association  sends  its  agent 
to  the  school  annually  to  look  after  the  boys. 
The  agent  discovered  that  a  Democratic  ap- 
pointee had  greatly  improved  the  reformatory, 
and  was  teaching  the  boys  useful  trades  far 
better  than  had  ever  been  done  before.  The 
agent  made  his  report  ;  and  when  a  Republican 
governor  came  into  office,  a  petition  was  circu- 
lated  and  signed    by  the  best  Republicans  of 


IN  POLITICS.  6 1 

the  village,  requesting  the  Republican  governor 
to  retain  the  Democratic  superintendent  in 
office.  Thus  have  friendly  visiting  and  charity- 
organization  reached  out  for  civil  service  reform 
in  politics. 

Innumerable  like  cases  could  be  cited.  I 
myself  first  awoke  to  the  selfish,  irresponsible, 
and  fearful  power  of  great  corporations  when 
through  charity  organization  work  I  came 
across  a  man  who  had  the  following  experience. 
He  had  been  vainly  hunting  for  work  for 
several  months.  At  last  he  was  promised  work 
by  the  foreman  in  the  stables  of  a  street-car 
company,  and  told  to  come  around  the  next 
morning  at  three  o'clock.  So  anxious  were  he 
and  his  family  for  the  work  that  his  wife  sat 
up  all  night  to  be  sure  to  waken  him  in  time. 
He  reached  the  stables  and  went  hard  to  work. 
At  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  the  fore- 
man told  him  his  work  was  unsatisfactory  and 
that  he  might  leave.  He  protested  and  asked 
the  reasons,  but  could  get  no  answer.  In  a 
dazed  condition  he  walked  out.  Later  he  asked 
one  of  the  other  men  if  he  could  tell  him  why 


62  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

he  was  so  suddenly  discharged.  The  answer 
came  that  he  had  neglected  to  do  as  all  the 
others  had  done  —  pay  the  foreman  ten  dollars 
for  the  job,  and  promise,  besides,  to  pay  him  a 
dollar  a  week  out  of  his  wages. 

Now,  corporations  are  creatures  of  govern- 
ment. They  could  not  exist  a  day  if  the  sov- 
ereign power  of  the  State  were  not  back  of 
them,  giving  them  the  rights  to  buy  and  sell 
and  hold  property,  and  to  act  as  a  single  aggre- 
gation of  capital,  with  all  the  enormous  power 
which  this  implies. 

If  the  State  creates  corporations,  it  can  de- 
termine the  conditions  of  their  existence.  It 
can  provide  that  no  corporation  can  do  business 
which  works  its  employees  more  than  eight 
hours  a  day,  or  which  does  not  guarantee  to 
them  the  right  of  employment  without  fines 
and  perquisites  so  long  as  they  honestly  do 
their  work.  Stockholders  in  corporations  at 
present  can  easily  evade  their  responsibilities 
to  the  working  people  who  make  their  money 
for  them.  They  can  leave  such  matters  to 
subordinate  superintendents  and  foremen,  and 


IN  POLITICS.  63 

they  themselves  need  never  interfere  in  the 
management  so  long  as  dividends  are  fat. 
Here  is  a  subject  for  far-reaching  political 
action.  In  the  very  nature  of  the  case  noth- 
ing but  the  coercive  power  of  government  can 
avail.  And  here  is  a  noble  opportunity  for  the 
educated  Christian  to  become  a  practical  poli-, 
tician  for  the  good  of  his  brothers. 

Other  means  may  be  mentioned,  besides 
friendly  visiting,  for  becoming  acquainted  with 
the  working  classes.  A  good  way  is  to  join  a 
labor  organization,  especially  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  wherever  there  happens  to  be  a  district 
or  local  assembly.  Most  educated  men  would 
be  admitted,  for  the  only  classes  excluded  are 
lawyers  and  saloon-keepers.  In  all  cases  the 
educated  man  should  get  acquainted  with  those 
who  are  near  the  poverty  line  or  just  over  that 
line.  This  includes  the  great  mass  of  un- 
skilled, unorganized  day  laborers.  It  is  here 
where  defective  and  unjust  laws  accumulate. 
This  marginal  zone  of  poverty  includes  nearly 
all  women  wage-earners  ;  and  here  is  the  field 
of   the   educated  woman   in   politics,  —  to  join 


64  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

working-women's  unions,  or  help  organize  such, 
and  then  to  work  for  laws  to  protect  women 
and  children  workers. 

Now,  in  joining  such  unions  or  in  going 
among  such  people,  let  the  educated  man  put 
away  all  thought  that  he  is  going  as  an  instruc- 
tor or  guide.  He  is  first  of  all  a  learner,  and 
only  a  beginner  at  that.  He  is  perhaps  full  of 
book  knowledge,  which  he  has  acquired  in  col- 
lege. There  he  has  learned  from  the  illustrious 
standard  political  economists  that  the  working- 
men  are  all  wrong  in  their  demands  ;  that  they 
are  going  contrary  to  nature,  and,  since  God 
made  nature,  they  are  even  atheistic. 

But  instead  of  finding  that  they  are  all 
wrong,  he  will  find  that  they  are  more  nearly 
all  right.  Though  they  know  little  of  abstruse 
books,  they  are  in  daily  contact  with  things, 
and  soon  feel  where  the  shoe  pinches.  There 
is  some  deep  reason  in  the  boycott,  in  the  re- 
fusal to  work  with  non-union  men,  in  the  com- 
plaints against  women  and  child  laboi,  against 
the  introduction  of  machinc"y,  and  against  con- 
tract  and   prison    labor.     What    these    reasons 


IN  POLITICS.  65 

are  the  books  have  not  taught ;  and  the  edu- 
cated man  does  not  know.  If  he  studies  them 
at  first  hand,  he  may  not  be  convinced  by  the 
workingman's  arguments,  but  he  will  begin  to 
comprehend  that  these  are  real  evils  which 
they  seek  to  avoid.  He  may  conclude  that 
the  evils  can  be  remedied  only  by  reaching 
causes  deeper  and  more  remote  than  even 
the  men  themselves  are  able  to  see;  but  he 
will  see  that  the  fundamental  social  wrongs 
of  which  they  complain  can  be  remedied  only 
through  politics. 

He  will  see,  perhaps  best  of  all,  that  it  is 
not  through  the  great  national  and  spectacular 
questions  which  divide  parties  that  the  welfare 
of  the  workers  is  to  come.  Protection  and  free 
trade,  silver  and  foreign  affairs,  are  of  little  con- 
sequence. But  the  vital  political  questions  are 
to  be  settled  in  his  own  village  or  city,  and  in 
his  own  State,  Here  is  where  corporations  are 
created  and  their  rights  and  duties  defined ; 
here  is  where  prison  and  contract  labor,  women 
and  child  labor,  and  hours  of  labor,  are  to  be 
determined.      Here  is  where  popular  education. 


66  THE  EDUCATED  MAN 

temperance,  economy,  and  virtue  are  to  be  pro- 
moted, so  far  as  this  can  be  done  tlirough 
politics. 

In  concluding,  we  may  restate  some  of  the 
points  just  made  in  order  to  show  how  the 
educated  man  may  be,  not  a  negative  and  stub- 
born element  in  politics,  but  a  positive  element 
for  good.  First,  by  enlisting  with  the  working 
masses,  he  is  on  the  side  of  the  voters.  And 
if  he  steadily  refuse  to  become  a  candidate  for 
a  salaried  office,  he  gains  their  confidence  and 
avoids  the  name  of  demagogue.  Second,  he 
discovers  that  evils  which  are  complained  of 
to-day  do  not  have  their  source  in  a  single 
cause,  but  rather  are  a  network  of  causes  and 
effects.  Long  hours  and  low  pay  are  causes 
of  intemperance  and  poverty,  and  intemper- 
ance and  poverty  are  causes  of  long  hours  and 
low  pay.  Consequently  the  educated  man 
should  not  become  enamoured  of  any  single 
reform.  If  the  working  people  and  political 
parties  are  not  ready  to  move  against  his  pet 
evil,  let  him  take  up  that  reform  which  seems 
at  the  time  most  likely  of  success,  and  to  his 


IN  POLITICS.  6"] 

surprise  he  will  find  that  he  has  helped  to 
remove  one  of  the  causes  for  the  very  evil 
which  he  himself  has  seen  most  clearly.  Then 
is  he  in  a  position,  through  the  confidence  he 
has  won  and  the  common-sense  he  has  shown, 
to  point  the  way  to  what  he  himself  considers 
important. 

And,  lastly,  let  the  educated  man  have  a  due 
sense  of  his  own  insignificance  and  ignorance, 
realizing  that  he  is  an  atom  in  a  huge  machine, 
and  that  other  atoms  know  as  much,  perhaps, 
as  he  does. 


THE   CHURCH 
AND    POLITICAL  REFORMS. 


THE    CHURCH    AND    POLITICAL 
REFORMS. 

I  AM  to  speak  upon  the  relation  of  the 
Church  to  political  reforms.  I  shall  consider, 
first,  What  part  has  politics  in  the  salvation 
of  the  world  ?  Second,  Why  does  politics  fail 
in  its  mission  ?  Third,  How  can  politics  be 
made  an  instrument  of  social  reform  ?  Fourth, 
What  should  be  the  attitude  of  the  Church 
toward  politics  ? 

There  is  a  new  idea  abroad  regarding  the 
relation  of  the  Church  to  society.  The  Church 
should  not  content  herself  with  saving  individu- 
als out  of  the  world,  but  should  save  the  world. 
Society  is  the  subject  of  redemption.  And  this 
not  for  the  sake  of  any  abstraction  called  soci- 
ety, but  for  the  sake  of  the  individuals  who 
compose  society.  It  is  being  recognized  that 
the  way  to  save  individuals  is  not  merely  to 
pick  out  a  few  through  the  agencies  of  tempo- 
71 


72  THE    CHURCH 

rary  excitement,  and  thus  to  obtain  a  confes- 
sion of  sin  and  a  profession  of  faith,  but  it  is  to 
gradually  develop  all  that  is  highest  in  every 
son  of  man,  whether  he  be  a  believer  or  not.  j 
This  is  the  meaning  of  Christ's  profound  say- 
ing, that  God  "maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the 
evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on 
the  just  and  on  the  unjust  ;"  that  is,  on  those 
who  profess  him  and  those  who  reject  him. 
The  Church  must  do  the  same.  But  the 
Church  has  worked  on  the  principle  that  it 
can  do  nothing  for  the  unjust,  that  is,  non- 
church-members.  It  can  build  up  Christian 
character  only  in  those  who  have  already  come 
into  the  fold. 

A  deeper  knowledge  of  humanity  shows 
this  to  be  fallacious.  Man  is  a  social  animal. 
He  is  a  part  of  a  living,  growing  organism. 
He  receives  life  handed  down  by  generations 
of  ancestry.  He  grows  up  amidst  an  all-per- 
vasive pressure  of  beliefs,  opinions,  sentiments, 
habits,  and  industrial  conditions.  He  is,  there- 
fore, the  creature  of  his  social  class.  If  the 
members  of  this  class  be  weak  in  body,  mind. 


AND   rOLITICAL   REFORMS.  y^ 

nerve  force,  and  will  power,  and,  therefore,  the 
slaves  of  their  surroundings,  he  will  be  also. 
Hence  the  reformation  of  society  is  a  problem 
of  ages,  not  merely  a  question  of  picking  out 
individuals  after  they  are  born,  but  of  saving 
them  generations  and  centuries  before  they 
are  born. 

There  is  no  remedy  known  which  will  cure 
society  in  a  day  or  a  generation,  or  even  a 
century  —  it  is  the  physiological  problem  of 
breeding.  And  the  longer  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual the  longer  the  problem  of  experiment. 
j  Heredity  is  potent  in  any  lasting  social  reform. 
But  heredity  can  be  modified  by  modifying 
environment.  Almost  nothing  can  be  hoped 
from  an  adult  generation  whose  parents  have 
lived  in  surroundings  of  poverty,  crime,  and 
laziness,  and  whose  childhood  has  been  simi- 
larly nurtured.  Little  can  be  expected  even 
from  children  now  living  in  such  surroundings. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  displaced  the  Indian  from 
the  land  of  his  fathers,  and  so  in  society  a  large 
part  of  the  question  of  reform  is  not  how  to 
reform,  but  how  to  displace,  the  baser  elements. 


74  THE   CHURCH 

At  the  same  time  the  environment  has  a 
most  powerful  influence  on  individuals.  Given 
a  man  with  good  ancestry,  and  place  him  from 
childhood  in  such  degraded  home  and  neighbor- 
hood surroundings  as  exist  in  every  city,  town, 
and  rural  district  of  our  land,  and  he  will  retro- 
grade. His  children  will  come  into  the  world 
still  lower  in  the  scale,  and  the  evil  environ- 
ment will  cumulate  its  results  from  generation 
to  generation.  It  is  from  the  world  about  us 
that  we  get  all  our  soul  experiences  and  our 
character  building.  But  it  is  not  the  physical 
world  that  teaches  us.  It  is  our  social  world.  \}^ 
Life  is  interpreted  to  us  by  those  with  whom 
we  live.  If  their  lives  are  narrow,  over-worked, 
ignorant,  aimless,  how  can  ours  be  better } 
And  what  will  be  the  gain  to  take  a  few  in- 
dividuals —  even  a  few  children  —  out  of  such 
surroundings,  when  the  surroundings  themselves 
remain.^  Hundreds  of  children  are  thrust  in 
for  every  one  that  we  can  get  out.  The  only 
remedy  is  to  reform  the  surroundings, — and 
this  means  to  reform  society  from  top  to 
bottom.      The    exclusivcness,    luxury,    ostenta- 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  75 

tion,  of  the  upper  four  hundred  are  but  the 
glossy  side  of  the  shield  to  the  herding,  depri- 
vation, and  ignominy  of  the  four  hundred  thou- 
sand who  support  them,  or  feed  upon  them. 

In  a  matter  like  this  small  measures  effect  no 
results  —  they  even  make  matters  worse.  By 
large  measures  I  mean  not  revolutionary,  but 
scientific  and  fundamental  measures.  Science 
means  knowledge,  profound  knowledge,  of  forces 
and  tendencies.  Without  the  science  of  sociol- 
ogy there  can  be  no  reform  of  society.  Chris- 
tianity means  a  purpose,  an  enthusiasm,  a 
devotion,  a  faith,  a  love  for  humanity.  Love 
and  knowledge,  Christianity  and  science,  the- 
ology and  sociology,  must  unite  to  save  the 
world. 

Now,  the  first  thing  needed  is  a  careful  study 
of  social  conditions,  and  the  formation  of  meas- 
ures for  reform.  Human  nature  must  be 
studied.  Social  classes  must  be  understood. 
The  characteristics  of  the  defective,  dependent, 
and  delinquent  classes  should  be  the  familiar 
knowledge  of  every  Christian.  Information 
about  labor,  monopolies,  taxation,  money,  ought 


"jG  THE    CHURCH 

not  to  be  accepted  on  tradition,  but  by  study  at 
first  hand.  Evils  must  be  comprehended  before 
reforms  can  be  suggested.  Then  reform  ex- 
periments everywhere  ought  to  be  examined 
and  compared.  Reforms  cannot  be  entered 
upon  without  a  basis  of  experience.  And  in 
nearly  every  field  this  experience  is  now  at 
hand.  Take  the  matter  of  profit-sharing.  This 
is  a  far-reaching,  Christian  reform.  And  it  is 
no  longer  a  matter  of  dreams  and  theories. 
Careful  students  have  collected  the  methods 
and  results  of  several  hundred  experiments. 
Successes  and  failures  have  been  noted,  and 
their  causes  analyzed.  He  who  adopts  this 
policy  now  is  like  the  machinist  who  builds 
after  an  approved  pattern,  rather  than  like  the 
inventor  who  risks  all  to  gain  all.  So  with 
other  reforms.  So  far  advanced  is  the  science 
of  sociology,  based  upon  comparisons  of  practi- 
cal experiments  everywhere,  that  almost  the 
only  thing  needed  now  is  the  diffusion  of  this 
science  among  the  people  at  large. 

But  there  is  a  radical  defect    of   machinery 
that  stands  in  the  way.     As  soon  as  a  policy  of 


AND  POLITICAL  REFORMS.  "jy 

reform  is  set  upon  in  whatever  field,  it  is  found 
that  in  order  to  be  fundamental  and  adequate, 
the  laws  of  the  land  must  be  modified,  or  new 
ones  introduced.  Government  is  the  only- 
supreme  authority  among  men.  It  is  the  only 
institution  which  can  make  its  plans  comprehen- 
sive. It  is  the  only  means  whereby  refractory, 
obstructive,  and  selfishly  interested  elements 
of  society  may  be  brought  into  line  with  social 
progress.  Run  over  in  your  mind  all  the 
reforms  agitated  in  these  days,  and  see  that 
nearly  every  one  requires  legislation.  Child- 
saving,  prisons,  charities,  taxation,  monopolies, 
money,  co-operation,  every  effective  measure 
for  the  advancement  of  society,  turns  upon  the 
formation  and  administration  of  laws.  Laws 
must  be  framed  and  executed  all  the  way  from 
those  which  are  merely  permissive  up  to  those 
wherein  the  government  absorbs  and  monopo- 
lizes the  affair  in  hand. 

"This  work  of  Christianizing  our  govern- 
ments," says  Dr.  Gladden,  "  seems  indeed 
a  herculean  labor;  but  it  is  one  of  the  most 
immediate  and  most  urgent  of  all  our  Christian 


78  THE    CHURCH 

duties."  Yet  the  reasons  which  Dr.  Gladden 
gives  for  Christianizing  politics  are  among 
the  minor  and  incidental  reasons.  There  are 
indeed  very  few  Christians  who  comprehend 
the  strategic  position  held  by  government  as 
the  key  to  all  social  reforms  and  the  Chris- 
tianization  of  society.  Take,  for  example,  that 
large  class  of  reforms  connected  with  child- 
saving.  This  work  is  mostly  voluntary  on 
the  part  of  private  societies.  But  private 
societies  can  do  nothing  without  the  co-oper- 
ation of  the  legislative  and  the  administrative 
authorities.  The  rights  of  children  must  be 
defined  and  enforced  as  against  the  rights 
of  parents.  The  laws  of  adoption  and  ward- 
ship must  be  modified  in  harmony  with  these 
newly  recognized  rights.  The  legislature  is 
the  only  authority  which  can  create  new  rights 
and  provide  for  their  enforcement.  Then, 
reformatory  institutions  must  be  provided  and 
maintained  by  the  State  according  to  wise 
principles.  It  is  from  the  lack  of  proper  legis- 
lation that  the  children  of  the  poor  are  to-day 
being  overwhelmed  by  crime  and  vice,   and  a 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  79 

race  of  vagabonds  is  being  brought  up  in  our 
midst. 

So  it  is  with  temperance  reform.  There  is 
no  Christian  work  which  needs  more  thought- 
ful and  scientific  treatment.  But  nothing  can 
be  done  without  proper  legislation.  Almost 
every  reform  you  can  name  is  to-day  blocked 
at  the  doors  of  municipal,  State,  and  Federal 
legislatures. 

What  kind  of  men  do  we  send  to  our  law- 
making bodies  to  attend  to  this  most  funda- 
mental part  of  Christianizing  society }  I  need 
not  describe  them.  The  people  and  the  news- 
papers are  fully  informed  regarding  them. 
The  serious  fact  is  that  they  are  mostly  new 
men.  One-half  to  two-thirds  of  the  members 
of  our  legislative  assemblies  are  serving  their 
iirst  term  as  law-makers.  Our  laws  everywhere 
are  being  made  by  a  majority  who  never  before 
tried  their  hands  at  law-making.  Many  of 
them,  too,  are  incapable.  They  have  been 
elected  because  they  were  amiable  nobodies, 
and  perhaps  had  declared  for  a  reduction  of 
taxes.      They  of  course  know  little  about  the 


8o  THE   CHURCH 

progressive  interests  of  the  State.  They  are 
not  alert  to  reforms  that  are  needed.  They 
give  little  evidence  of  scientific  knowledge  of 
sociology,  of  economics,  of  penology,  of  public 
finance.  They  know  not  what  other  States 
and  countries  are  doing.  They  even  have  no 
conception  of  a  Christianized  society.  They 
ridicule  such  things — unless  a  powerful  polit- 
ical interest  happens  to  be  concerned.  They 
are  concerned  with  rivalries  and  spoils. 

In  modern  society  we  do  most  of  our  work 
by  proxy.  We  carry  division  of  labor  to  the 
extremest  limit.  We  cannot  attend  to  all 
matters  ourselves  in  so  complex  a  civilization. 
But  for  that  work  which  we  delegate  we  try 
to  select  men  appropriately  equipped.  When 
you  employ  a  physician  you  seek  out  a  man 
of  sobriety,  intelligence,  and  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  medicine.  When  you  go  for  a  tailor 
or  a  shoemaker,  you  enquire  for  a  man  who 
has  learned  his  trade,  and  who  knows  how  to 
measure  and  fit.  Your  minister  of  the  gospel 
must  be  adapted  by  cliaracter  and  training  to 
his  work.      But  when  you  choose  the  men  who 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  8 1 

do  the  most  far-reaching  and  fundamental  of 
your  delegated  duties  —  those  services  which 
are  the  prerequsite  of  all  social  activities,  and 
without  which  efforts  to  save  society  are  but 
salve  for  dyspepsia  —  strangely  enough,  you 
select  from  the  ignorance,  the  vice,  and  the 
incapacity  of  your  community. 

With  such  a  body  of  men  elected  to  legisla- 
tures and  councils,  it  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  the  real  law-makers  will  be  found  among 
them.  The  true  legislators  of  America  are 
unknown  to  the  constitution  and  the  law  of  the 
land.  They  are  self-appointed,  private  organi- 
zations which  have  grown  up  with  gigantic 
strength  in  the  past  thirty  years.  The  veri- 
table law-givers,  who  stand  behind  the  scenes 
and  pull  the  strings  which  control  the  tools  on 
the  floor  of  the  legislature,  are  the  managers 
of  the  political  party  machines  and  the  lobby. 
These  are  the  organizations  which  have  grown 
up  under  the  forms  of  our  free  and  representa- 
tive institutions,  and  have  engrossed  the  sub- 
stance of  power.  To  the  people  remain  the 
husks    and    the    bonfires.      The    lobby    is    the 


82  THE   CHURCH 

creature  of  the  great  corporations  and  the  or- 
ganized financial  and  saloon  interests.  It  in- 
cludes the  brightest  and  most  capable  men  in 
the  State.  The  party  machine  is  the  organized 
clique  of  spoilsmen  who  feed  upon  the  public 
storehouse.  And  naturally  tnough  the  ma- 
chine and  the  lobby  are  one.  They  include  the 
same  individuals.  They  sap  the  corporations 
and  the  moneyed  interests  on  the  one  hand, 
and  they  dictate  to  the  law-makers  and  distrib- 
ute the  spoils  on  the  other. 

I  do  not  say  that  there  are  no  exceptions  to 
my  description  of  legislative  assemblies.  In 
every  legislature  and  municipal  council  are  to 
be  found  able,  clean,  and  honest  men,  sincerely 
striving  to  do  their  duty.  But  can  any  one 
show  such  a  man  who  will  consent  to  remain 
in  a  State  legislature  or  a  city  council  for  more 
than  one  or  two  terms }  If  he  is  not  ousted  by 
machine  methods^he  will  soon  voluntarily  aban- 
don his  venture.  He  is  made  to  feel  that  he 
is  out  of  his  place.  He  can  have  no  influence 
over  his  fellow  legislators.  He  therefore  de- 
clines re-election  ;  and  if  his  constituency  is  an 


AND   POLITICAL    REFORMS.  83 

exceptionally  good  one,  another  man  like  him 
will  be  elected,  only,  however,  soon  to  follow 
his  predecessor. 

In  the  main,  it  is  as  I  have  described  it. 
The  lobby  and  the  machine  are  the  rulers  to- 
day of  the  American  people.  If  we  are  so 
foolish  as  to  entertain  dreams  of  what  we  fondly 
call  the  Christianizing  of  society,  at  the  very 
threshold  of  our  hopes  we  are  scoffed  at  by 
these  usurpers  pf-the  citadel.  Here  is  where 
the  first  movement  upon  the  forces  of  social 
wrong  must  be  made.  The  key  to  social  reform 
is  political  reform,  and  the  key  to  political 
reform  is  the  legislative  department  of  govern- 
ment. 

It  is  the  custom  nowadays  for  newspapers 
and  those  who  are  alarmed  at  our  political 
prospects  to  berate  the  intelligent  and  Chris- 
tian classes  of  the  community  for  keeping"  out 
of  politics.  -  These  classes  are  in  a  majority. 
It  is  assumed  if  they  would  only  attend  the 
primaries  and  go  to  the  polls,  they  could  easily 
control  the  elections.  But  in  this  complaint, 
two  important  facts  are  overlooked.     Politics  is 


84  THE    CHURCH 

a  business.  The  successful  politician  must 
give  his  whole  time  to  the  profession.  The 
primaries  and  the  polls  are  the  least  part  of  his 
work.  There  must  be  professional  politicians 
who  act  as  leaders  for  political  interests,  just 
as  there  are  professional  doctors,  lawyers, 
teachers.  The  true  problem  is  not  how  to  do 
away  with  professional  politicians,  but  how  to 
get  better  professionals.  The  second  fact  over- 
looked is  that  our  system  of  elections  is  so 
contrived  that  reform  politicians  cannot  get 
elected.  We  elect  a  single  candidate  by  a 
majority  or  a  plurality  vote.  This  narrows  the 
choice  down  to  the  two  candidates  representing 
the  two  great  political  parties  —  that  is  to  say, 
representing  the  two  machine  organizations, 
and  the  professional  politicians  of  those  parties. 
A  candidate  free  from  the  rule  of  the  ma- 
chine cannot  be  elected  unless  he  can  get  a 
majority  or  plurality  of  the  votes.  But,  as 
everyone  knows,  reform  movements  must  grow 
gradually  from  little  beginnings,  and  therefore 
a  vote  for  a  third  candidate  is  a  vote  thrown 
away,  or  rather,  a  vote  for  the  machine  of  the 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  85 

opposite  party.  Now,  the  reform  elements  of 
the  country  are  not  always  united.  "  There  are 
several  ways  of  moving,"  says  Sir  John  Lub- 
bock, in  this  connection,  "but  only  one  way  of 
standing  still."  Consequently  our  system  pre- 
vents reform  elements  from  having  almost  any 
political  influence  whatever.  What  is  needed 
in  order  to  reform  our  politics,  and  give  a  fair 
field  to  all  classes  of  social  reforms,  is  a  system 
whereby  these  reform  elements  can  elect  repre- 
sentatives and  aldermen  by  less  tJiau  a  viajority 
or  a  plitrality  vote.  That  is,  they  should  elect 
representatives  in  proportion  to  their  numbers, 
and  not  be  compelled  to  wait  for  representation 
until  they  can  secure  a  majority  of  the  voters 
in  one  or  more  districts.  That  is  to  say,  the 
key  to  social  reform  is  some  effective  kind  of 
minority  or  proportional  representation. 

This  is  a  political  reform  which  has  already 
been  adopted  in  three  cantons  of  Switzerland, 
that  little  land  of  freedom  which  leads  the  world 
in  popular  government.  The  reform  consists, 
briefly,  in  abolishing  the  district  and  ward  s}'s- 
tem  of  electing  single  representatives,  and  then 


S6  THE    CHURCH 

electing  all  the  representatives  on  a  general 
ticket  as  our  presidential  electors  are  elected. 
But  instead  of  giving  all  the  candidates  to  the 
majority  party,  as  we  do  with  presidential  elec- 
tors, the  successful  candidates  are  assigned  to 
all  parties  in  the  field  in  nearly  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  popular  vote  of  those  parties. 
Thus,  in  a  municipal  election  for  aldermen,  if 
fifty  are  to  be  elected,  a  group  of  reformers 
numbering  only  one-fiftieth  of  the  total  number 
of  voters  can  join  together,  though  they  may  be 
scattered  in  all  parts  of  the  city,  can  nominate 
the  ablest  man  among  themselves  and  can  be 
absolutely  sure  of  his  election.  If  they  num- 
ber five-fiftieths  they  can  elect  five  aldermen, 
and  so  on.  Every  group  of  reformers  would 
likewise  secure  its  fair  proportion  of  repre- 
sentatives. 

I  cannot  now  enter  into  a  full  discussion  of 
proportional  representation.^     Suffice  it  to  say 

^  See  Sir  John  Lubbock,  "  Representation,"  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment Series;  "  La  Representation  Proportionnelle,"  Paris,  l888. 
Also  Propoi-tional  Representation  Re-'iew,  Stoughton  Cooley, 
secretary  and  editor,  22  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago,  111. 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  8/ 

that  in  a  highly  complex  political  structure  like 
ours  the  method  whereby  you  work  is  fully  as 
important  as  the  zeai  with  which  you  work.  In 
more  primitive  conditions  great  reforms  might 
be  introduced  by  a  Charlemagne  or  a  Napoleon 
by  mere  decree  and  force  of  arms.  But  in  a 
civilization  based  on  popular  rule  an  avenue 
must  be  provided  whereby  reforms  can  gradu- 
ally work  up  from  the  ranks  of  the  people. 
Else  revolution  and  reaction  ensue. 

Consider  how  far  a  legislature  constituted  as 
I  have  proposed  agrees  with  an  ideal  assembly, 
and  what  such  an  assembly  could  accomplish 
for  reform.  A  legislative  assembly  as  a  whole 
should  not  be  more  advanced  than  the  people  as 
a  whole.  A  legislature  made  up  altogether  of 
reformers  would  be  ludicrous  and  short-lived. 
But  all  shades  of  opinion,  and  all  varieties  of 
purpose,  among  the  people  at  large  should  be 
accurately  represented  as  soon  as  they  attain 
political  significance.  In  this  way  those  who 
are  united  on  a  definite  program  should  secure 
representation  in  proportion  to  their  numbers. 
For  this  reason  the  constitution  of  the  leo:isla- 


88  THE   CHURCH 

ture  should  be  elastic  and  readily  responsive  to 
the  growth  of  popular  sentiment.  At  present, 
as  is  well  known,  reform  elements  do  not  get 
representation  until  they  have  almost  a  major- 
ity of  the  people,  and  are  on  the  verge  of  com- 
plete ascendency.  Again,  the  legislature  should 
be  composed  not  of  the  average  intelligence 
of  the  community,  but  of  the  leaders  of  the 
people.  If  democracy  means  rule  by  medioc- 
rity, then  democracy  must  fail.  The  ability 
of  the  community  will  somehow  find  means  for 
ruling.  It  is  the  mediocrity  rather  than  the 
corruption  of  our  legislatures  to-day  that  guar- 
antees the  supremacy  of  the  machine  and  the 
lobby.  Lastly,  the  representative  leaders  of 
the  people  should  be  secure  in  their  seats  so 
long  as  they  truly  represent  a  political  fraction 
of  the  people.  Machine  methods,  gerryman- 
ders, distribution  of  spoils,  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  exclude  them  as  soon  as  they  have 
gained  a  little  experience  in  legislation.  From 
one-half  to  two-thirds  of  our  law-makers  to-day 
are  not  re-elected,  and  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find 
a  member  of  a  State  legislature  who  has  served 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  89 

more  than  three  short  terms.  Truly  this  is 
the  secret  of  legislative  incapacity  and  dull  con- 
servatism. Reform  is  experiment.  Inexperi- 
enced men  do  not  venture  far  from  the  beaten 
path.  They  follow  the  narrow  footsteps  of 
their  predecessors. 

What  now  could  be  accomplished  for  social 
reform  and  the  Christianizing  of  society  by  a 
legislature  thus  constituted  .''  Let  us  take  the 
case  of  a  city  council.  It  would  be  composed 
of  the  ablest  men  in  the  city,  representing"  all 
interests  and  opinions.  They  would  mainly  be 
men  of  experience  in  municipal  affairs,  and 
would  feel  that  they  had  a  life-career  before 
them.  Being  independent  of  the  sinister  in- 
fluences of  the  machine  and  the  lobby,  they 
would  devote  themselves,  not  to  distributins: 
spoils  and  favoring  private  monopolies,  but 
would  study  carefully  the  exigencies  of  munici- 
pal affairs.  They  would  become  well  grounded 
in  the  principles  of  economics  and  sociology. 
The  baser  and  corrupt  elements  of  the  city 
would  indeed  be  also  represented.  Gamblers 
and  saloon-keepers  would  send  their  leaders  to 


90  THE    CHURCH 

the  council ;  but  instead  of  getting  a  majority 
of  the  aldermen,  as  to-day,  they  would  get  only 
as  many  as  were  proportional  to  their  numbers. 
And  there  is  not  a  city  in  the  land,  not  even 
the  worst,  where  the  baser  elements  on  a  fair 
count  are  not  far  in  the  minority. 

A  council  thus  composed  would  be  a  deliber- 
ative assembly.  It  would  be  the  leaders  of  the 
people  in  conference.  Let  the  tenement-house 
question,  for  example,  come  before  them.  Be- 
sides the  three  or  four  men,  perhaps,  who  were 
the  recognized  leaders  of  this  reform  in  the 
city,  there  would  be  a  majority  of  the  council 
well  disposed.  The  larger  number  would  be 
well  informed  as  to  what  other  cities  in  Amer- 
ica and  Europe  were  doing  to  meet  this  mo- 
mentous problem.  At  present,  if  the  people 
of  a  city  want  the  tenement  districts  improved, 
they  are  compelled  to  form  a  voluntary  society, 
to  get  up  petitions,  to  go  before  a  council  wholly 
ignorant  and  even  ill-disposed,  and  almost  in- 
evitably to  accomplish  nothing  permanent  un- 
less they  can  strangely  command  some  political 
influence.       But    with    a    properly    constituted 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  9 1 

council,  the  leaders  of  the  reform  would  have 
seats  in  the  council.  They  could  compel  a 
hearing.  Around  them  the  outside  sentiment 
of  the  city  would  concentrate.  They  would 
speak  with  authority.  Their  plans  would  in- 
deed be  thoroughly  scrutinized  and  perhaps 
modified  by  the  combined  wisdom  of  all,  but 
in  some  form  or  other  they  would  command 
assent.  Thus  the  reform  would  have  a  recog- 
nized nucleus.  Reformers  would  find  encour- 
agement in  their  work.  Instead  of  a  helpless 
band  of  private  dreamers,  they  would  be  a 
weighty,  growing  influence  in  the  city.  The 
reform  itself  would  progress  as  rapidly  as 
public  education  prepared  the  people  for  it, 
instead  of  being  blocked  by  an  indifferent, 
ignorant,  and  corrupt  board  of  aldermen. 

The  same  is  true  of  every  other  reform. 
Street-cleaning,  sewerage,  local  monopolies, 
public  works,  saloons,  would  all  be  dealt  with 
in  a  scientific,  progressive  fashion.  The  mu- 
nicipal council,  instead  of  being  an  obstacle 
to  municipal  reform,  would  be  the  wise  and 
experienced    leader.       Good    men    would    seek 


92  THE   CHURCH 

places  in  its  deliberations,  knowing  that  there- 
by they  could  exert  a  potent  influence  in  bet- 
tering the  conditions  of  their  fellow-citizens. 
Applied  Christianity  could  find  its  true  place 
in  municipal  reform  instead  of  being  ignomin- 
iously  excluded.  And  when  the  same  princi- 
ples should  be  extended  to  State  legislatures 
and  the  federal  Congress  we  must  surely  agree 
that  for  the  first  time  the  key  to  the  social 
situation  would  be  held,  and  that  by  far  the 
most  important  practical  advance  would  be 
made  towards  realizing  on  earth  the  kingdom 
of  God. 

Another  legislative  reform,  which  is  to-day 
perhaps  nearer  adoption  than  proportional  rep- 
resentation, is  the  so-called  direct  legislation 
of  the  Swiss  cantons  and  federation.  This 
takes  two  forms,  the  initiative  and  the  refer- 
endum. By  the  initiative  a  specified  number 
of  private  citizens  may  draw  up  a  bill  for  enact- 
ment and  present  it  to  the  legislature.  The 
legislature  cannot  modify  the  bill,  but  must  set 
a  day  on  which  the  people  are  to  vote  for  or 
against  it  as  presented,  just  as  we  vote  on  con- 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  93 

stitutional  amendments.  The  referendum,  as 
its  name  indicates,  is  the  constitutional  pro- 
vision that  no  act  originating  in  and  passed  by 
a  legislature  shall  be  valid  as  law  unless  the 
people  give  a  majority  vote  in  its  favor  at  the 
polls.^ 

Direct  legislation  would  be  a  powerful  in- 
strument for  progressive  reform  in  the  present 
political  exigencies.  It  would  largely  remove 
reform  questions  from  party  politics,  and  per- 
mit the  people  to  vote  their  real  sentiments 
on  important  measures.  By  it  many  questions 
which  are  now  pressing,  but  which  cannot  get 
a  hearing  in  legislatures,  would  be  immediately 
settled. 

But  direct  legislation  alone  cannot  carry 
social  reform  beyond  a  limited  field.  It  is  at 
best  only  a  powerful  check  on  the  legislature. 
It  gives  little  opportunity  for  deliberation  and 
compromise  in  the  shaping  of  measures,  which 
is  the  essence  of   legislation  and  politics.     It 

'  See  J.  W.  Sullivan,  "  Direct  Legislation,"  New  York, 
1S93.  Also  address  E.  H.  Pratt,  Secretary  Direct  Legislation 
League,  P.  O.  Box  1216,  New  York. 


94  THE    CHURCH 

does  not  provide  for  experienced,  able,  and  hon- 
est leaders  in  framing  laws.  The  people  in 
voting  cannot  take  into  account  the  details  of 
bills,  and  in  a  complex  civilization  the  details 
of  legislation  are  vital.  Consequently,  as  is 
found  to  be  the  case  in  Switzerland,  the  peo- 
ple do  not  vote  upon  the  merits  of  measures, 
but  upon  the  question  of  "confidence"  or  "no 
confidence  "  in  the  legislature  which  proposes 
them.  Thereby  much  progressive  legislation 
is  defeated.  Two-thirds  of  the  laws  submitted 
are  vetoed  by  the  people,  and  many  of  them 
afterward  in  the  same  form  are  eagerly  adopted. 
But  direct  legislation  combined  with  propor- 
tional representation  seems,  as  already  shown, 
to  be  exactly  fitted  to  the  needs  of  the  political 
situation. 

Two  other  reforms  in  the  machinery  of  gov- 
ernment are  necessary  before  politics  can  take 
its  place  in  a  programme  of  social  reform. 
They  are  the  secret  ballot  and  civil  service 
reform.  These  are  fully  as  important  as  those 
I  have  described,  but  are  much  better  known 
and  are  rapidly  on  the  road  to  adoption. 


AND  POLITICAL   REFORMS.  95 

The  question,  what  should  be  the  attitude  of 
the  Church  toward  politics,  is  already  inferred 
if  not  answered.  But  in  conclusion  let  me  em- 
phasize it.  In  the  times  of  our  ancestors  the 
Church  and  the  State  were  one.  Ecclesiastical 
questions  were  political  questions.  The  two 
were  deliberated  and  decided  in  the  same  as- 
sembly. To-day  we  have  wisely  separated 
Church  and  State.  But  we  have  carried  it  too 
far.  We  have  separated  Christians  and  poli- 
tics. Christians  are  here  to  save  the  world, 
that  is,  to  reform  the  world.  They  must  begin 
by  reforming  politics.  They  must  reform  both 
the  machinery  and  the  spirit  of  politics,  the 
structure  and  the  functions  of  government. 
Political  reform  is  not  an  end  in  itself.  It  is  a 
means  for  attaining  fundamental  social  reforms. 
It  is  the  doorway  to  the  practical  solution  of 
the  problems  of  labor,  taxation,  crime,  pauper- 
ism ;  and  these  are  but  the  Christian  problems, 
how  to  save  the  world,  and  how  to  save  every 
individual  in  the  world.  First,  the  people  must 
study  these  social  questions.  There  is  no  force 
in  society  so  able  to  giv-e  them  the  right  direc- 


96  THE    CHURCH. 

tion  in  their  study  as  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 
And  having  found  what  is  wanted,  the  next 
thing  is  to  find  how  to  get  it.  Legislative 
reform  in  the  shape  of  proportional  represen- 
tation and  direct  legislation  is  indispensable  to 
facilitate  both.  These  reforms  would  educate 
the  people  as  no  other  institution  could  do,  and 
would  furnish  the  unfailing  machinery  for  en- 
forcing the  plans  which  education  has  led  the 
people  to  adopt.  So  important  are  these  as  a 
key  to  all  social  reforms,  that  with  their  adop- 
tion we  might  expect  greater  social  progress  in 
five  years  than  the  present  bungling  methods 
permit  in  twenty-five  years. 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 


TEMPERANCE   REFORM.i 

Intemperance  is  a  social  problem.  To  cure 
it  this  fact  must  be  recognized.  Morselli  has 
said  that  suicide,  insanity,  crime,  vagabondage, 
are  phenomena  of  civilization.  So  is  intemper- 
ance. Ours  has  been  a  century  of  revolution. 
Old  forms  of  social  organization  have  been  sud- 
denly demolished.  Customs  and  laws  which 
regulated  the  lives  of  men  have  been  repealed 
or  disregarded.  Every  man  has  been  left  to 
his  fate  or  his  fortune  without  any  recognized 
guidance.  It  has  been  an  age  of  scramble. 
In  the  melee  those  unable  to  scramble  have 
gone  to  the  bottom. 

Man  differs  from  other  animals  mainly  in  his 
nervous  system.     This  is  the  seat  of  his  fecl- 

^  References:  Norman  M.  Kerr,  "Inebriety,"  London, 
i8S8;  T.  L.  Wright,  M.  D.,  "  Inebriism,"  Bellefontaine,  O.; 
Quarterly  yournal  of  Inebriety,  Hartford,  Conn. 

99 


lOO  TEMPERANCE   REEORM. 

ings,  his  intelligence,  his  will.  In  his  struggle 
for  existence  the  brute  depends  upon  his  teeth, 
his  claws,  his  muscle.  Civilized  man  depends 
upon  his  nerves  and  his  brain.  It  is  with  these 
that  he  adjusts  himself  to  his  surroundings. 
It  is  his  nervous  system  that  makes  him  a 
social  animal.  When  adjustment  with  society- 
fails,  it  is  upon  his  nervous  system  that  the 
greatest  strain  occurs.  This  system  is  most 
delicately  balanced.  It  is  easily  weakened  or 
upset.  Society  is  in  a  state  of  convulsion. 
Maladjustment  with  such  a  society  is  inevit- 
able. The  individual  is  then  on  the  verge  of 
that  nervous  degeneracy  which  the  psycholo- 
gists ascribe  to  the  abnormal  man. 

This  maladjustment  has  shown  itself  in  start- 
ling figures  the  past  forty  years.  During  that 
time  crime  has  increased  five  times  as  fast  as 
population.  Insanity  has  doubled  and  trebled 
compared  with  population.  Suicide  has  in- 
creased alarmingly.  Paupers  have  multiplied, 
and  tramp  is  a  new  word,  while  intemperance 
has  become  so  fixed  and  ascertainable  that  it  is 
known  as  inebriety.     The  consumption  of  alco- 


TEMTERANCE   KEEORM.  lOI 

holic  liquors  per  capita  of  the  nation  at  large 
has  more  than  doubled  in  twenty  years,  not- 
withstanding that  the  proportion  of  total  ab- 
stainers has  largely  increased.  Those  who 
drink  are  more  excessive  than  ever  before ;  and 
the  proportion  of  drunkards  has  also  increased. 

What  can  be  done  to  check  this  flood  of  evil  ? 
What  can  the  Church  do  ?  To  answer  these 
questions  we  must  first  know  the  nature  and 
the  causes  of  inebriety.  When  science  has 
taught  us  these,  Christianity  and  science  may 
point  out  the  remedies. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  nervous  system, 
then,  what  is  intemperance  .-'  It  is  the  exces- 
sive use  of  some  ancesthetic,  either  alcohol, 
opium,  chloral,  chloroform,  ether,  or  chlorodyne. 
The  craving  of  the  drunkard  for  this  anaesthetic 
is  not  owing  to  any  pleasant  taste  in  the  mouth. 
It  is  an  overwhelming  demand  of  the  entire 
nervous  system.  In  other  words,  inebriety  is 
allied  to  insanity  and  epilepsy  on  the  one  hand, 
and  hay  fever  on  the  other.  An  unbalanced 
nervous  system,  having  its  origin  in  many 
different  causes,  gives  rise  to  the  most  intense 


102  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

feelings  of  unrest,  irritability,  and  a  peculiar 
nagging  sensation,  as  though  the  whole  body 
were  in  a  state  of  terrible  unceasing  agitation. 
These  feelings,  accompanied  by  the  memory 
derived  from  previous  experience  on  the  part 
of  the  sufferer,  that  alcohol  or  some  other  an- 
aesthetic will  quiet  the  nerves,  creates  the 
irresistible  craving  for  that  anaesthetic.  It  is 
a  morbid  appetite;  but  it  is  overwhelming,  and 
is  far  more  inexorable  than  the  simple  appetite 
of  taste  for  some  palatable  drink.  The  drunk- 
ard loathes  the  taste  of  whiskey.  He  washes 
it  out  of  his  mouth  with  a  glass  of  water.  It  is 
not  the  intoxicant  he  wants,  but  the  intoxication. 
The  fact  that  most  inebriety  among  Tuetonic 
peoples  is  alcoholic,  is  an  historical  accident. 
The  diseased  condition  of  the  nervous  system 
is  the  essential  fact.  With  us  it  takes  the  form 
of  alcoholism.  With  Asiatics  it  is  opium- 
eating.  It  may  be  also  chloral,  chlorodyne, 
or  ether.  But  alcohol  has  an  advantage  over 
other  anaesthetics  in  that  it  is  also  a  stimulant. 
Its  first  action  is  to  spur  the  circulation.  It 
exhilarates  and  then  soothes. 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  IO3 

Inebriety,  being  a  disease  of  the  nervous 
system,  should  be  studied  by  the  physiologist 
and  the  physician.  The  question  to  be  an- 
swered is,  what  is  the  nature  of  the  structural 
degeneration  of  nerve  walls  and  nerve  cells 
which  causes  these  feelings  of  nervous  agony  ? 
The  medical  writers  hold  that  the  disease  may 
be  very  different  in  character  for  different  per- 
sons. In  one  it  may  be  an  excessive  growth  of 
the  nerves  and  nerve  cells,  hypertrophy  ;  in 
another  a  defective  nutrition,  atrophy ;  in 
another  an  unequal  development,  especially 
where  the  brain  has  been  cultivated  at  the 
expense  of  the  nerves.  In  some  it  may  be  the 
unnatural  growth  and  hardening  of  the  walls  of 
the  nerve  cells,  thus  crowding  upon  the  nerve 
matter  itself.  Or,  there  may  be  a  fatty  degen- 
eration of  the  nerve  substance.  And  finally  it 
may  be  a  constitutional  blood-poisoning  which 
has  eaten  away  parts  of  the  nerves.  In  all 
cases  there  is  some  structural  defect  in  the 
substance  of  the  nerves  or  brain.  And  this  is 
exactly  the  case  in  insanity. 

The  close  relation  between  insanity  and  in- 


I04  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

ebriety  is  a  potent  revelation  from  the  scientific 
students  of  intemperance.  I  do  not  refer  to  the 
fact  that  a  drunken  man  acts  and  talks  like  an 
insane  man,  for  the  shallowest  student  can  see 
that  ;  but  to  the  fact  that  the  causes  which  lead 
him  to  drink  are  similar  to  those  which  impel 
the  insane  man  to  his  mad  acts.  The  inebriate 
is  insane  while  he  is  sober. 

Dr.  T.  L.  Wright  ^  speaks  of  three  kinds  of 
alcoholic  inebriates.  First,  the  daily,  habitual 
drunkard,  who  is  popularly  believed  to  drink 
"  simply  from  motives  of  baseness,  idleness,  and 
reckless  diabolism.  He  is  supposed  to  be  wholly 
in  love  and  accord  with  evil  from  choice." 

Second,  the  moderate  drinker,  who  does  not 
get  intoxicated.  This  man  is  blamed  mainly 
because  of  his  bad  example,  and  not  because  of 
any  direct  injury  to  himself  or  others.  "  Yet," 
says  Dr.  Wright,  "  it  will  appear  in  the  sequel 
that  this  steady  drinker  is  the  unwitting  father 
not  only  of  a  dreadful  fate  to  himself,  but  that 
from  him,  especially,  through  organic  nerve 
changes  which    eventually  become    hereditary, 

1   "  Iiiolniism,"  page  34. 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  IO5 

spring  not  the  inebriate  and  the  lunatic  alone, 
but  not  uncommonly  the  criminal  also." 

Third,  the  periodic  or  spasmodic  drunkard, 
the  man  who  reforms,  signs  the  pledge,  shows 
deep  remorse,  and  then  plunges  headlong  into 
the  wildest  excess  of  intoxication,  again  to  re- 
form and  repeat  the  same  cycle.  "  He  is," 
says  Dr.  Wright,  "a  standing  puzzle,  .  .  .  the 
source  of  more  hopes  and  more  fears,  more 
suspense  and  dread,  more  admiration  and  dis- 
gust, than  any  other  species  of  drunkard."  He 
is  the  true  type  of  the  drunkard  in  his  essential 
nature,  and  in  his  make-up  will  be  found  the 
various  causes  of  inebriety. 

The  causes  of  inebriety,  like  those  of  other 
diseases,  may  be  fruitfully  classed  as  predis- 
posing and  exciting.  Predisposing  causes  are 
"  those  which  render  the  body  susceptible  to 
disease;  exciting  causes  are  those  which  ex- 
cite an  outbreak  of  the  disease  in  bodies  pre- 
viously predisposed  to  it."^  We  may  examine 
the  different  causes  of  inebriety  from  these 
standpoints. 

1  Kerr,  "Inebriety,"  page  134. 


I06  TEMPERANCE   REFORM. 

Of  course,  the  most  patent  cause  of  inebriety 
is  alcohol  itself.  Alcohol  is  a  poison.  Its 
daily  moderate  use  results  in  abnormal  growth 
and  hardening  of  the  connective  tissues  and 
cell  walls  throughout  the  body,  especially  in 
the  liver,  kidneys,  and  brain.  Plainly,  as  a 
result,  the  inner  substance  of  these  organs 
must  be  gradually  compressed  and  strangled. 
The  nerve  matter  is  disturbed  in  its  action  and 
degenerates  day  by  day.  Finally  the  point  is 
reached  where  the  balance  is  upset,  and,  when 
an  exciting  cause  is  presented,  the  moderate 
drinker  becomes  the  outrageous  drunkard. 
The  nervous  system  becomes  disorganized  and 
unstable,  and  nothing  can  quiet  it  except  his 
familiar  anaesthetic  and  stimulant. 

But  it  is  agreed  by  the  highest  authorities, 
that  the  use  of  intoxicants  by  a  perfectly 
healthy  person  is  only  one  of  the  minor  causes 
of  the  disease  inebriety.  Says  Dr.  Wright, 
"  The  greater  proportion  of  the  oinomaniacal 
neuroses  is  to  be  found  in  those  who  have 
received  them  by  inheritance,  from  the  epi- 
lepsy, the  insanity,  the  vices,  and  misfortunes. 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  lOJ 

and  physical  injuries  of  a  world  long  since  dead 
and  gone." 

Alcohol  as  an  exciting  agent  must  of  course 
always  be  present,  else  there  could  be  no  intox- 
ication. Its  seriousness  occurs  where  a  person 
already  subject  to  nervous  disease  through  pre- 
disposing causes,  is  induced  to  take  the  first 
glass  of  liquor.  In  such  a  person  there  follows 
an  immediate  frenzied  seizure  upon  the  intoxi- 
cant as  soon  as  he  perceives  that  it  allays  the 
nervous  instability  and  agony  which  he  suffers. 
The  slightest  smell  of  alcohol  will  re-awaken 
the  old  crave  of  the  reformed  drunkard,  and  his 
will  is  powerless  before  it.  Children  who  have 
inherited  the  diseased  or  unstable  condition 
often  show  a  wild  yearning  for  an  intoxicant 
which  once  they  have  tasted. 

Here  is,  of  course,  the  supreme  argument  for 
the  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic.  Children 
and  young  people  must  not  be  allowed  the  first 
taste  of  liquor,  and  the  exciting  agent  must  be 
removed  from  the  reforming  drunkard. 

To  physical  and  mental  shocks  are  ascribed 
by  Dr.    Crothers    twenty    per    cent    of    all    in- 


I08  TEMPERANCE   REFORM. 

ebriety.  These  are  especially  "  blows  on  the 
head,  sunstrokes,  railroad  accidents,  and  inju- 
ries which  have  caused  stupor  or  periods  of 
unconsciousness,  or  profound  wasting  dis- 
eases." 1  The  mental  shocks  are  domestic, 
business  and  financial  trouble,  religious  hyste- 
ria, disappointed  affections,  and  fright.^ 

Other  diseases  which  lead  to  inebriety  are 
those  affecting  the  vital  organs  and  the  blood, 
such  as  lung  disease,  dyspepsia,  licentiousness, 
rheumatism,  and  gout.  Shocks  and  diseases 
result  in  abnormal  nutrition  or  degeneracy  of 
the  nerves  and  brain,  thus  calling  for  narcotic 
relief. 

Diet,  sanitary  conditions,  and  occupation, 
combined  with  heredity,  are  the  most  far- 
reaching  of  the  predisposing  causes  of  intem- 
perance. The  diet  of  the  rich  may  be  too 
luxurious,  that  of  the  poor  unwholesome,  in- 
sufficient, and  innutritions.  The  nervous 
system  is  not  sufficiently  nourished,  and  there 
is  a  craving  for  something  to  stimulate  and 
soothe.     The  salted  meats  and  the  adulterated 

1  N'orth  American  Review,  Sept.,  1891.     -  Kerr,  p.nge  iSi. 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  IO9 

groceries  of  the  poor,  together  with  their 
ignorance  of  cooking,  are  probably  a  co-operat- 
ing cause  for  more  than  half  our  intemper- 
ance. Children  are  brought  up  without 
wholesome  or  sufficient  food,  their  bodies  are 
starved  and  puny,  and  when  they  grow  older 
and  are  compelled  to  work,  their  strength 
cannot  withstand  the  nervous  strain.  Intox- 
icating drink  is  their  inevitable  refuge.  I 
know  of  no  temperance  reform  more  urgently 
needed  than  cooking  schools. 

Bad  diet  is  usually  found  with  bad  homes. 
Says  Dr.  Kerr  :  "  Ill-ventilated  and  over- 
crowded dwellings,  from  the  vitiated  state  of 
the  air  within  them,  occasion  a  languor  and 
sluggishness  which  lead  to  functional  derange- 
ment, and  produce  a  profound  feeling  of  de- 
pression which,  in  many  cases,  predisposes 
and  excites  to  intemperance  in  alcohol." 
Tenement-house  reform  is  profound  temper- 
ance reform. 

Occupation    underlies    many    other    causes. 

It    determines    diet    and    tenement.      In    itself 

•  it  acts   in  two    ways.     In   the  learned    profes- 


no  TEMPERANCE   REFORM. 

sions  and  business  enterprises,  where  there  is 
usually  a  sensitive  nervous  organism  combined 
with  modern  high-pressure  competition,  ner- 
vous irritability  arouses  the  craving  for  intox- 
icants. Stock-brokers,  editors,  physicians,  are 
especially  liable. 

But  these  classes  usually  have  variety  in 
their  work.  Competition  with  variety  often 
strengthens  the  mind  and  nerves.  In  our 
insane  asylums  the  largest  proportion  of  in- 
mates is  furnished  from  farmers'  wives.  It  is 
high  pressure  combined  with  monotony  that 
causes  insanity.  So  with  intemperance.  The 
working  classes  of  our  day  do  not  learn  an 
all-around  trade.  They  are  appendages  to 
machines.  Their  occupation  is  cramped  ;  they 
work  in  a  groove  ;  the  intellect  is  not  invited. 
Long  hours,  heated  and  unsanitary  surround- 
ings, and  no  variety  in  their  work,  lead  to  a 
craving  for  stimulant  and  anaesthetic. 

Heredity  is  wholly  predisposing.  Dr.  Crothers 
ascribes  to  it  sixty  per  cent  of  intemperance. 
Here  we  see  the  close  relation  between  in- 
ebriety and  insanity.     A  notable  fact  of  hered- 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  Ill 

ity  is  the  interchangeability  of  nervous  diseases. 
Heredity  does  not  necessarily  produce  identity, 
it  produces  like.  Dr.  Kerr  ^  says  of  the  off- 
spring- of  insane  parentage,  that  one  child  may 
be  an  idiot,  a  second  an  epileptic,  a  third 
becomes  insane  at  puberty,  a  fourth  is  an  inebri- 
ate, and  a  fifth  is  neuralgic.  And  so  with  the 
families  of  many  inebriates.  One  member  is 
insane,  a  second  is  hysteric,  a  third  is  melan- 
cholic, a  fourth  is  asthmatic,  a  fifth  is  an 
inebriate. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  that  parents  be  insane 
or  inebriate  in  order  to  beget  a  predisposition 
to  intemperance  in  their  children.  Consump- 
tion, rheumatism,  gout,  or  some  profound  con- 
stitutional disease,  will  do  the  same.  The 
overwork  of  mothers  in  factories  and  sweat- 
shops is  the  very  hothouse  of  drunkenness  for 
generations  to  come.  Whatever  bequeathes 
a  defective  or  deficient  nervous  system  will  pre- 
dispose the  inheritor  to  inebriety.^ 

*  "Inebriety,"  page  29, 

2  Whatever  may  be  the  outcome  of  the  present  discussion  on 
the   question,    "Are  acquired  cliaracters  inherited?"  it  seems 


112  TEMPERANCE   REFORM. 

To  these  four  causes,  bad  diet,  bad  homes, 
occupation,  and  heredity,  co-operating  and  cumu- 
lative, may  safely  be  attributed  three-fourths  of 
our  modern  intemperance. 

Other  causes  might  be  mentioned.  The  vol- 
untary idleness  of  the  rich  and  the  tramp,  the 
involuntary  idleness  of  the  honest  workingman. 
In  modern  industry  long  hours  of  exhausting 
work  alternate  with  seasons  of  out-of-work. 
Intemperance  in  drinking  is  the  corollary  of 
intemperance  in  working. 

Our  system,  too,  of  popular  education,  by 
putting  undue  strain  on  the  intellect  at  the 
expense  of  the  body,  and  establishing  an 
arbitrary  exalted  standard  which  only  the  bril- 
liant can  attain,  results  in  nerve  irritability,  and 
sows  the  seeds  of  intemperance. 

With  this  survey  of  the  causes  of  intemper- 

probable  that  the  above  conclusions  will  not  be  overthrown. 
For,  should  the  question  be  decided  negatively,  it  would  apply 
only  to  those  characters  acquired  through  use  and  disuse,  while 
profound  constitutional  degeneration,  affecting  the  vital  organs 
and  the  blood  of  the  parent,  could  by  no  possibility  bequeath  a 
healthy  body  to  the  offspring.  To  inherit  inebriety  is  not  to 
inherit  a  mouth-taste  for  liquor,  but  it  is  to  inherit  a  debilitated 
constitution  and  defective  nerves. 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  II3 

ance  before  us,  it  is  plain  that  no  single 
panacea  will  effect  its  cure.  The  disease  is  as 
deep  as  civilization.  The  cure  is  the  whole 
range  of  social  reform.  Let  us  rapidly  survey 
these  reforms.  The  first  to  notice  are  those 
measures  which  prevent  the  origin  of  an  un- 
stable nervous  condition.  A  healthy  body  and 
a  healthy  nervous  system  are  the  first  requi- 
sites. The  diet  can  be  improved  by  plain 
instead  of  luxurious  living  on  the  part  of  the 
rich,  especially  for  children,  by  cooking  schools 
along  with  common  and  high  schools  for  rich 
and  poor,  and  by  laws  against  the  adulteration 
of  food. 

Tenement-house  reform  involves  more  than 
inspection.  It  involves  demolition,  and  it  may 
involve  municipal  ownership  and  management, 
as  in  Liverpool  and  Glasgow.  Certainly  it 
depends  on  cheaper  street-car  fares,  and  these 
can  be  adequately  secured  only  through  muni- 
cipal ownership  of  lines.  Sanitation  in  dwell- 
ings and  factories  will  cure  intemperance  as  it 
lowers  the  death  rate. 

The  level  of  competition  in  business  must  be 


114  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

raised.  Competition  is  good  ;  but  excessive, 
prolonged  competition  is  degrading.  Here  gov- 
ernment must  intervene.  There  are  needed 
shorter  hours  of  labor,  protection  from  Sunday 
labor,  Saturday  half-holidays,  factory  laws  pro- 
tecting women  and  children,  and  abolition  of 
sweat-shops. 

Wages,  too,  must  be  better,  especially  for 
the  lowest  laborers,  and  there  must  be  secu- 
rity of  employment  and  better  educational 
methods. 

When  all  these  social  reforms  are  carried 
out,  it  will  be  possible  to  have  universal  pro- 
hibition. This  is  a  preventive  measure,  but 
not  a  positive  cure.  It  should  be  extended 
wherever  it  can  be  enforced.  Sweden  and 
Norway  and  South  Carolina  have  shown  us 
the  next  best  system.  They  have  taken  the 
element  of  private  profit  out  of  the  retail  liquor 
business,  and  have  made  it  a  government  mo- 
nopoly. They  have  substituted  public  profit. 
There  is  danger  that  this,  in  relieving  the 
people  from  taxes,  may  operate  against  further 
prohibition;  but   at  any  rate   it  is  better  than 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  II5 

our  system  of  high  license,  which  combines 
the  twin  evils  of  private  profit  and  public 
profit.  It  seems  plain,  however,  that  intoxi- 
cating liquors  ought  not  to  be  sold  at  cost. 
The  profits  must  then  be  enormous.  Norway 
has  hit  upon  the  plan  of  turning  them  in  to 
various  charitable,  religious,  and  reformatory 
institutions.  This  is  the  best  that  can  be 
done,  but  it  looks  like  a  bonus  to  the  saviours 
of  society  not  to  oppose  the  industry  that 
gives  them  something  to  do. 

So  much  for  the  prevention  of  drunkenness. 
Can  the  drunkard  himself  be  cured.''  At  pres- 
ent there  are  two  cures  that  have  the  approval 
of  the  public,  moral  suasion  and  imprisonment. 
Both  are  sad  failures.  Notwithstanding  the 
influences  of  religion  and  moral  suasion,  and 
the  periodic  cycles  of  temperance  revival,  the 
per  capita  consumption  of  liquor  has  doubled 
in  twenty  years. 

Imprisonment,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not 
only  not  a  cure,  it  is  a  powerful  stimulus  to 
the  disease.  It  is  said  that  ninety-nine  per 
cent  of  the  drunkards  who   are   committed  to 


Il6  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

prison  are  sure  to  appear  again  for  the  same 
offence.  One  woman  in  England  has  been 
committed  two  hundred  and  fifty  times  for 
drunkenness,  and  American  workhouses  have 
"rounders"  whose  records  run  from  twenty  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty  commitments.  This  is 
indeed  the  climax  of  that  burlesque  which  we 
fondly  call  "justice."  We  simply  clean  up  the 
drunkard  for  fifteen  to  thirty  days,  then  send 
him  out  with  a  pungent,  newly  whetted  appetite 
for  another  debauch. 

When  inebriety  is  recognized  as  a  disease, 
the  chains  of  morality  will  not  be  broken,  as 
many  fear,  nor  will  the  drunkard  be  petted  and 
fed  with  honey,  but  he  will  be  treated  like  a 
madman.  Industrial  hospitals  will  take  the 
place  of  workhouses  in  the  vicinity  of  large 
towns  and  cities,  for  temporary  cases,  and 
there  will  be  one  or  more  State  hospitals  for 
their  permanent  treatment.  Admission  will  be 
voluntary  or  compulsory.  Treatment  will  be 
scientific,  military,  medical,  and  hygienic.  The 
inmate  will  be  compelled  to  work,  he  will  be 
taught  a  trade,  his  surplus  earnings  will  be  set 


TEMPERANCE  REFORM.  WJ 

apart  for  his  family  and  dependents  or  for  him- 
self on  release.  He  will  not  be  sent  up  for 
thirty  days,  but  iDitil  cured.  Succeeding  com- 
mitments will  be  cumulative,  and  the  third  or 
fourth  will  prove  him  incurable.  He  will  then 
be  confined  for  life.  When  in  the  judgment 
of  the  physician  and  superintendent  he  is  cured 
he  will  be  released  not  unconditionally,  but  07i 
parole,  with  official  supervision  and  monthly 
reports,  to  be  returned,  if  he  backslides,  on  a 
warrant  from  the  superintendent  without  the 
intervention  of  the  courts. 

This  is  the  best  that  medical  science  and 
prison  science  together  offer  for  the  cure  of 
drunkenness.  But  all  positive  cures  have 
organic  relations  with  preventive  measures. 
The  disease  is  curable,  or  at  least  its  course 
can  be  checked,  but  there  are  two  indispen- 
sable conditions  :  total  abstinoice,  and  freedom 
from  predisposing  and  exciting  causes.  The  first 
condition  involves  prohibition,  the  second  in- 
volves social  reform.  As  long  as  men  are  over- 
worked, involuntarily  idle,  have  poor  food  and 
bad  homes,  there  is  no  permanent  cure  for 
their  drunkenness. 


Il8  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

I  have  not  spoken  directly  of  the  place  of 
the  Church  in  this  matter  of  intemperance. 
Yet  everything  I  have  said  is  directly  the  true 
work  of  the  Church.  There  is,  however,  one 
profound  fact  and  one  unbounded  field  of  work 
which  I  have  omitted.  Human  conduct  is  fun- 
damentally a  movement  away  from  pain.  A 
man  drinks  because  it  gives  him  pleasure  and 
relieves  his  pain.  If  he  does  not  drink,  it  is  be- 
cause he  finds  greater  pleasure  elsewhere.  But 
man  differs  from  the  brute  in  this  :  His  pleas- 
ures may  be  those  of  art,  literature,  politics, 
religion,  benevolence.  These  are  refined  and 
exquisite.  They  leave  no  room  for  drunken- 
ness. The  whole  thing  is  a  question  of  what 
we  call  character.  The  highest  character  finds 
happiness  in  these  highest  activities;  the  low- 
est, only  in  sensual  indulgence.  To  merely  tell 
a  man  to  quit  drinking  is  mockery.  Tell  him 
to  quit,  and  then  build  up  his  character  so  that 
he  can  have  pleasure  in  better  things.  Here  is 
the  work  of  the  Church  —  the  old  work  of  char- 
acter-building, but  on  a  broader  basis  than  ever 
before.     It  is  not  merely  conventional  worship, 


TEMPERANCE   REFORM.  II9 

but  everything  that  gives  the  man  a  better 
body,  a  better  nervous  system,  a  broader  out- 
look. It  is  the  institutional  church  in  its 
fullest  scope.  It  is  the  friendly  visitors, 
organized,  intelligent,  faithful.  I  have  advo- 
cated shorter  hours  and  better  wages  as  essen- 
tial temperance  reform.  Yet  I  know  these 
cannot  be  safely  granted  to  men  whose  minds 
are  low.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  make 
men  worthy  of  industrial  and  social  reform. 
Individual  reform  must  accompany  social  re- 
form. Each  is  essential  to  the  other.  Intem- 
perance is  a  social  disease  and  an  individual 
disease.  It  must  be  attacked  from  both  sides. 
Christianity  and  true  religion  are  equal  to  the 
attack  if  only  they  summon  to  their  aid 
psychology  and  sociology. 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

Modern  society  is  marked  by  three  momen- 
tous but  quiet  revolutions,  which  distinguish  it 
from  any  that  have  preceded.  The  first  is  a 
moral,  the  second  a  technical,  the  third  an 
economic  revolution. 

The  moral  revolution  is  that  remarkable  hu- 
manitarian wave  which  is  showing  itself  in 
religion,  politics,  industry.  The  Sunday-school 
scholar  of  to-day  knows  almost  nothing  of  the 
creeds  and  catechisms  which  engrossed  the 
childhood  of  our  mothers  ;  but  he  learns  about 
the  Man  Christ,  and  scarcely  gets  a  hint  at  the 
wrath  and  vengeance  of  God.  The  politician 
protests  by  the  heavens  above  and  the  earth 
beneath  that  he  is  above  all  the  friend  of  the 
workingman.  In  industry  the  air  is  rife  with 
schemes  for  profit-sharing,  co-operation,  and 
socialism. 

123 


124  MUNICIPAL    MONO rO LIES. 

All  this  is  a  new  way  of  looking  at  things. 
The  world  has  shifted  its  moral  standpoint.  A 
revolution  has  occurred  in  the  very  hearts  of 
men.  And  a  moral  revolution  is  the  all-impor- 
tant one  in  society.  It  is  the  beliefs,  the  hopes, 
the  ideals  of  men  that  transform  and  renovate 
their  social  institutions.  Everything  else  must 
conform  to  these  new  ideas.  The  standpoint 
which  we  shall  take  to-day  on  every  social  and 
industrial  question  is  determined  mainly  by  the 
way  we  look  at  this  revolution  in  morals. 

The  technical  revolution  consists  in  the  un- 
paralleled march  of  science  and  invention.  Na- 
ture is  made  the  slave  of  man  instead  of  his 
master.  The  locomotive  engineer  is  as  mighty 
as  ten  thousand  Greeks  and  Romans.  This 
technical  revolution  effects  its  greatest  results 
in  the  means  of  communication  and  transporta- 
tion. It  has  separated  the  farmer  from  the 
manufacturer  by  thousands  of  miles.  It  has 
built  up  cities  like  condensed  empires.  It  has 
caused  a  minute  and  rigid  division  of  labor. 
And  this,  more  important  than  all  else,  has 
made  men  dependent  upon  each   other  for  their 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 25 

very  livelihood.  No  one  nowadays  supplies 
all  his  own  wants.  He  performs  one  little  ser- 
vice for  society  at  large,  and  looks  to  society 
for  his  own  sustenance.  Hence,  those  indus- 
tries which  are  called  distributive  are  the  most 
vital  of  all.  They  furnish  the  only  avenues 
for  carrying  the  products  of  the  individual  out 
to  society,  distributing  them  among  his  fellow- 
men,  and,  in  turn,  of  bringing  back  to  the  indi- 
vidual the  products  which  society  has  made  for 
him.  The  individual  cannot  do  this.  He  must 
rely  upon  social  servants  to  do  it.  If  I  be  de- 
pendent upon  you  for  my  life,  much  more  am  I 
dependent  upon  the  means  of  communication 
for  reaching  you.  These  industries  we  rightly 
look  upon  as  public  services.  They  must  have 
special  favors  from  society,  and  society  cannot 
withhold  these  because  its  life  depends  upon 
the  services.  Hence  society  grants  them  fran- 
chises, rights  of  way,  the  use  of  public  high- 
ways, the  sovereign  powers  of  eminent  domain. 
From  the  nature  of  the  case  it  makes  them 
monopolies.  Competition,  which  presses  down 
on  other  enterprises,  is  here  unknown. 


126  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

City  monopolies  are  a  special  kind  of  these 
general  distributive  industries.  But  they  are 
as  vital  to  the  city  life  as  are  railways  and 
postal  service  to  the  nation.  Cities  cover  to- 
day such  wide  areas,  individuals  have  their  in- 
dustry so  much  more  minutely  divided  than  in 
the  country,  access  to  the  free  gifts  of  nature 
—  like  water,  sunlight,  fresh  air — is  necessa- 
rily so  denied,  competition  is  so  relentless,  that 
the  city  dweller  must  look  to  public  servants 
for  necessities  which  the  countryman  readily 
provides  for  himself. 

The  economic  revolution  is  the  rise  and 
growth  of  private  corporations.  Unquestion- 
ably the  corporations  have  made  possible  the 
present  marvellous  development  of  industry. 
They  have  opened  up  the  resources  of  the 
country  on  a  large  scale,  have  conducted  costly 
experiments,  and  brought  about  unnumbered 
economies.  But  private  corporations  in  con- 
trol of  the  distributive  industries  of  a  city  are 
very  different  from  the  original  experimental 
corporations.  An  argument  was  formerly  in 
vogue  to  the  effect    tliat   private  business  was 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  12/ 

always  better  managed  than  public,  because  the 
proprietor  had  a  personal,  immediate  interest  in 
the  success  of  his  business.  He  gave  his  indi- 
vidual attention  to  its  oversight.  He  watched 
the  details,  took  advantage  of  improvements, 
sought  eagerly  to  please  his  customers  and  to 
solicit  trade.  These  arguments  held  true  re- 
garding corporations,  because  the  owners  were 
always  the  originators  and  managers  of  their 
own  business.  But  for  city  monopolies  this  is  no 
longer  true.  These  industries  have  passed  far 
beyond  the  experimental  stage.  They  supply 
necessities.  They  need  none  of  the  costly 
devices  of  advertising  and  bill-posting.  Their 
market  is  constant.  In  good  times  or  bad  the 
people  must  patronize  them.  They  are  the 
safest  kind  of  business  that  can  possibly  be 
entered  upon.  In  this  regard  they  even  sur- 
pass distributive  industries  in  the  country  at 
large,  like  railways  and  the  telegraph.  Cities 
are  growing  rapidly  in  size;  no  competitors 
can  contend  with  these  municipal  monopolies 
for  their  growing  market  ;  and  every  increase 
in  sales  is  accompanied  by  a  diminishing  cost 


128  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

of  production.  Whether  the  business  is  man 
aged  well  or  ill,  profits  must  swiftly  increase. 

Consequently  we  find  as  we  should  expect,  a 
change  in  the  character  of  corporations  owning 
these  enterprises.  The  stockholders  are  no 
longer  as  a  rule  the  managers.  They  have  sur- 
rendered their  earlier  functions  into  the  hands 
of  salaried  presidents,  superintendents,  and 
attorneys.  These  are  the  men  who  really  con- 
trol such  enterprises  and  deal  with  the  custom- 
ers. They  are  agents.  The  stockholders  are 
perhaps  absentees.  They  look  only  for  divi- 
dends. Their  agents  are  responsible  for  the 
dividends,  not  directly  for  the  public  services 
they  render. 

With  these  facts  recognized,  the  conclusion 
is  necessary  that  these  industries  must  either 
be  controlled  or  owned  by  the  city.  Nobody 
any  longer  favors  leaving  them  alone.  The 
moral  revolution  has  gone  too  far.  These  enter- 
prises hold  the  dearest  interests  of  the  masses 
in  their  hands.  They  employ  thousands  of 
laborers.  And,  notwitlistanding  the  city  gives 
to  them  tlie  most  valuable  of  special  privileges, 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 29 

there  are  no  employers  in  the  land  who  work 
their  men  so  long  or  pay  them  so  poorly,  unless 
public  control  forces  them  into  better  ways.  Be- 
sides, their  charges  are  nearly  always  dispropor- 
tionately far  above  the  cost  of  their  services,  as 
measured  by  those  of  other  industries.  Every 
city  in  the  land  is  in  a  constant  fever  of  com- 
plaint because  of  the  high  charges  and  shabby 
services  of  these  favored  monopolies.  The 
working  girl,  receiving  only  six  dollars  a  week, 
is  forced  to  stand  morning  and  evening  in  a 
cold  and  crowded  street  car  and  deliver  to  the 
agents  of  the  company  at  least  one-tenth  of  her 
income.  She  is  thus  taxed  in  a  relentless  way 
that  the  government  itself  dare  not  attempt. 
The  Manhattan  Elevated  of  New  York  carries 
its  passengers  at  the  cost  of  two  and  one-half 
cents  apiece  and  charges  them  five  cents  for 
doing  it.  This  is  simply  the  highway  robbery 
of  the  poor.  Gas  and  electric  light  are  furnished 
at  a  prohibitory  tariff. 

But  there  is  a  corporation  which  is  respon- 
sive to  the  demands  of  morals.  This  is  the 
city     itself.       Private    financiering    is    carried 


130  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

on  for  dividends.  Public  financiering  is  con- 
ducted for  the  good  of  the  public.  The  moral 
revolution  has  passed  by  the  private  corpora- 
tion, and  is  fast  giving  us  a  new  goal  for  the 
municipal  corporation. 

There  is  a  wide-spread  complaint  about  the 
corruption  of  city  government.  Fault  is  found 
with  the  army  of  ignorant  and  boss-led  voters. 
But  how  can  a  city  government  be  pure  and 
noble,  when  we  look  upon  its  reform  merely 
as  a  matter  of  reducing  the  tax  rate  .'*  Men  are 
better  than  taxes.  We  shall  never  have  up- 
right city  government  until  cities  are  regarded 
as  means  for  elevating,  widening,  and  rejoicing 
the  life  of  the  day-laborer,  his  wife  and  child- 
ren. If  the  city  does  nothing  for  your  igno- 
rant voter,  why  should  he  not  get  something 
else  for  his  vote  .-*  Let  the  city  renovate  the 
tenement  house,  even  build  its  own  tene- 
ment houses,  as  Liverpool  and  Glasgow  have 
done  ;  let  it  regulate  and  inspect  the  markets, 
keep  down  extortion  and  pawnbroker's  usury, 
as  Berlin  has  done  ;  let  it  furnish  cheap  trans- 
portation and  carry  the  children  free  to  school 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  13I 

and  back,  as  Sydney  and  Melbourne  have  done  ; 
let  it  furnish  cheap  gas,  electric  light  and 
power,  pure  water,  and  even  steam  heat  at 
cost  to  all  the  poorest,  as  various  cities  abroad 
and  at  home  have  done  ;  then  should  we  have 
a  city  worth  spending  enthusiasm  upon.  Then 
would  city  government  take  hold  of  the  hearts 
of  the  meanest  voters.  At  present  the  work- 
ingman  has  nothing  at  stake  in  his  munici- 
pality. He  is  a  mere  pack-horse,  with  a 
precarious  shelter-at-will  in  somebody  else's 
tenement.  The  city  does  nothing  for  him. 
What  interest  can  he  take  in  it  .-' 

You  may  say  this  is  not  business — it  is 
sentiment.  Yes,  it  is  sentiment.  But  he  who 
counts  upon  ruling  out  the  ethical  impulses 
from  politics,  religion,  or  business,  is  revolting 
against  the  one  social  force  that  is  resistless. 

With  this  new  view  of  city  government 
arising  in  the  hearts  of  men,  economists  are 
compelled  to  add  new  emphasis  to  the  dis- 
tinction between  industries  that  are  public,  and 
those  that  are  private.  The  distributive  indus- 
tries are  public.      We  are    only   beginning  to 


132  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

see  how  significant  tliey  are  for  the  welfare 
of  every  other  enterprise  in  the  city.  They 
must  be  made  servants  to  them. 

What,  then,  can  public  control  and  regula- 
tion short  of  ownership  and  management  do, 
to  make  them  fulfil  their  proper  purpose.-' 
Massachusetts  has  established  a  State  Board 
of  Gas  and  Electric  Light  Commissioners  with 
extraordinary  powers.  Upon  complaint  from 
any  city,  the  board  can  make  examination,  and 
can  order  the  company  to  charge  reasonable 
rates  and  to  establish  reasonable  conditions. 
Its  decisions  are  final.  The  board  has  been 
in  existence  for  eight  years  ;  yet  in  no  State 
in  the  Union  to-day  is  the  demand  for  public 
ownership  more  urgent.  Charges  have  been 
reduced  in  but  a  few  cases  through  the  efforts 
of  the  board,  and  then  very  insignificantly. 
The  companies  continue  to  pay  high  dividends 
on  inflated  stock,  and  the  service,  though 
somewhat  improved,  is  far  below  that  where 
cities  own  their  plants.  The  commission 
protects  the  companies  even  more  than  the 
public.       In   many  States   the    companies    are 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 33 

advocating    commissions    to  stem  the  tide  for 
public  ownership. 

It  is  one  thing  to  show  what  ought  to  be 
done,  and  another  to  show  that  it  can  be  done. 
Can  cities  safely  undertake  these  enterprises  .'' 
Would  not  expenses  be  greater .?  Would  not 
improvements  cease  to  be  added  ?  Would  not 
political  corruption  be  increased  } 

There  are  four  characteristics  belonging  to 
these  enterprises,  as  compared  with  strictly- 
private  business,  which  render  them  peculiarly 
fit  for  public  ownership  and  management. 

In  the  first  place,  they  are  not  experiments. 
They  supply  necessities.  Unless  the  city  it- 
self withers  away,  they  are  sure  to  grow  more 
profitable.  Government  in  none  of  its  forms 
can  afford  to  take  risks.  If  an  individual  fail 
in  an  experiment,  he  alone  goes  into  bank- 
ruptcy. But  if  a  government  fail,  bankruptcy 
means  the  beginning  of  anarchy.  Government 
must  be  cautious,  but  cities  run  no  risks  what- 
ever in  these  industries. 

These  enterprises,  too,  are  monopolies. 
Government    cannot    safely    engage    in    com- 


134  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

petition  with  private  corporations.  If  gov- 
ernment did  not  forbid  private  persons  to 
carry  the  mails,  the  public  post-ofhce  would 
prove  a  failure.  This  does  not  mean  that 
public  service  is  inefficient,  but  that  public 
financiering  is  based  on  different  principles 
from  private.  Its  purpose  is  the  development 
of  the  country,  of  the  city,  the  encouragement 
of  industry,  the  equalizing  of  conditions,  the 
welfare  of  the  masses.  A  private  post-ofifice 
would  give  magnificent  service  between  the 
great  cities  and  wealthy  patrons.  It  would 
carry  letters  in  cities  for  half  a  cent.  But 
the  South  and  West,  the  poor  and  the  iso- 
lated, would  have  no  service  whatever,  or  else 
would  pay  extortionate  prices.  The  Atlantic 
coast  and  Great  Lake  regions  support  the 
post-office,  and  pay  for  all  the  country.  Other 
sections  are  served  at  heavy  loss.  This  can 
be  done  only  by  enforcing  a  monopoly  or 
by  imposing  taxes.  So  it  is  with  a  munici- 
pal enterprise.  Like  the  streets  and  high- 
ways, it  is  a  necessary  condition  and  stimulus 
for   private    business.       It    ought    not    to    be 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 35 

conducted  for  profit,  but  for  service.  For 
effecting  this  result  it  must  be  a  monopoly. 

Again,  these  enterprises  are  pre-eminently 
simple  in  their  organization.  There  are  no 
complex,  minute  details.  There  is  little  deli- 
cacy of  adjustment.  Not  a  great  amount  of 
skill  is  required  from  the  workmen.  A  large 
number  of  employees  perform  the  same  opera- 
tion. They  can  be  organized  like  an  army. 
The  accounts  are  easily  kept,  and  the  public 
can  understand  them. 

And  lastly,  the  workmen  are  constantly  under 
the  eye  of  their  employers,  the  public.  The 
public  is  capable  of  judging  as  to  the  quality 
of  the  service.  Complaint  is  easily  made. 
The  manager  and  superintendents  are  your 
neighbors.  If  they  are  responsible  to  you  they 
will  serve  you  well. 

These  are  four  advantages  which  render  it 
presumptive  that  city  governments  could  suc- 
cessfully own  and  operate  these  enterprises. 
Experience,  also,  as  far  as  it  can  be  gathered, 
realizes  these  presumptions.  City  ownership 
and  management,  in  every  known  case  where 


136  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

it  has  been  tried,  is  superior  to  private  owner- 
ship and  management.  I  can  stop  here  only  to 
give  final  results  and  averages,  as  far  as  these 
enterprises  have  been  studied,  and  refer  you 
for  details  to  other  sources.^ 

According  to  the  census  report  of  1892,  the 
average  annual  charge  for  water  for  an  average 
dwelling  in  thirty-six  cities  owning  their  works, 
was  $11.50  for  an  average  daily  per  capita  con- 
sumption of  ninety  gallons  ;  while  in  fourteen 
cities  under  private  ownership,  the  charge  was 
$17.42,  or  an  average  of  fifty-one  per  cent 
higher.  The  lowest  charge  was  for  public 
ownership,  $4.50.     The  highest  was  for  private 

^  Statistical  data  following  are  derived  from  the  "Census 
Bulletins"  of  1890;  "Consular  Report  on  Gas  in  Foreign 
Countries;  "  Review  of  Revieivs,  February,  1S93,  articles  on 
Municipal  Gas-making  and  Electric  Lighting  in  the  United 
States;  The  Aegis,  Madison,  Wisconsin,  containing  report  of 
a  debate  on  Municipal  Ownership;  Bemis,  "  Public  Ownership 
of  Gas  in  the  United  States,"  in  publications  of  the  American 
Economic  Association.  The  statistics  are  ably  criticised,  how- 
ever, by  Rosewater  in  publications  of  the  American  Statistical 
Association,  1893,  volume  iii..  Numbers  21  and  22.  Mr. 
Rosewater  apparently  does  not  deny  the  conclusions  to  be 
diawn  fnim  tlie  statistics,  since  he  advocates  municipal  owner- 
ship, lie  rightly  enjoins  caution  in  the  use  of  the  figures, 
e.ipeeiully  in  the  nialt^-r  cif  averni;us. 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 37 

ownership,  $31.00.  The  average  cost  of  the 
works  under  city  ownership  was  $21.35  ^^  each 
head  of  population,  while,  under  private  owner- 
ship, companies  were  paying  dividends  on  1^31.20 
per  capita,  being  forty-six  per  cent  higher. 

In  the  manufacture  of  gas,  European  cities 
have  gone  ahead  of  American  cities.  In  Ger- 
many, fifty  per  cent  of  the  cities  own  their 
works,  and  the  charges  are,  in  every  case, 
less  than  for  private  services.  Berlin  clears 
$1,200,000  a  year  on  her  municipal  gas,  and 
sells  it  for  $1.00  a  thousand.  New  York,  with 
the  same  population,  pays  $1.25  a  thousand, 
and  gets  nothing  but  a  small  lot  of  taxes  and 
a  big  lot  of  bribed  aldermen. 

In  England,  public  works  have  increased  in 
sixteen  years  twenty-three  per  cent,  while  private 
works  have  increased  ig.88  per  cent.  The 
average  price  charged  by  public  works  is  2s.  6d. 
—  sixty  cents  —  the  average  by  private  works 
is  2s.  Q/iid. — sixty-seven  cents.  It  is  a  gen- 
eral fact  that  with  public  ownership  the  con- 
sumption of  gas  and  other  services  is  ranch 
smaller  in    proportion    to  the    number  of   con- 


138  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

sumers  than  with  private  ownership,  showing 
that  the  public  serves  the  jDOorcr  classes.  In 
England,  it  stands  twenty-nine  thousand  feet 
per  consumer  in  public  works,  and  fifty-five 
thousand  in  private  ;  while  with  public  works 
the  number  of  consumers  is  fifteen  per  cent  of 
the  population,  and  with  private  works  it  is  only 
eight  and  one-half  per  cent. 

In  the  United  States  there  are  but  twelve 
cities  owning  gas-works.  Two  of  these  se- 
cured their  works  in  1892  and  one  in  1891. 
Philadelphia,  notwithstanding  a  worn-out  plant 
and  wide  areas,  manufactures  and  delivers  gas 
for  seventy-six  cents  per  thousand  feet ;  and, 
making  allowance  for  extensions,  interest,  and 
taxes,  the  cost  would  be  $1.06.  She  sells  it 
for  $1.50,  clears  over  $1,000,000  a  year,  and 
with  her  water-works  reduces  the  tax-rate  on 
other  property  sixty  cents  on  the  hundred  dol- 
lars. 

The  city  of  Wheeling,  with  thirty-five  thou- 
sand population,  made  and  delivered  gas  in  1892 
for  fifty-seven  cents  per  thousand  feet,  allowing 
seven  per  cent  for  interest  and  taxes  ;  sold  the 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 39 

gas  for  seventy-five  cents  to  private  consumers, 
furnished  free  all  gas  used  by  the  city,  and 
cleared  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars  cash. 

The  average  cost  for  nine  cities  which  have 
been  in  the  business  for  more  than  two  years 
is  sixty-four  cents  a  thousand.  The  cost  of 
making  gas  is  rapidly  falling.  Water  gas  can 
be  made  and  sold  for  thirty-five  cents.  If  a 
city  owns  its  works,  it  gets  the  advantage  of 
such  improvements.  Otherwise  no  reductions 
are  made.  Philadelphia,  having  her  own  pipes, 
buys  water  gas  in  the  holders  for  thirty-seven 
cents. 

The  number  of  consumers  in  Philadelphia  is 
thirteen  per  cent  of  the  population.  In  Wheel- 
ing ten  per  cent.  In  Boston,  with  private 
ownership,  it  is  only  seven  per  cent. 

Public  works  can  be  duplicated  in  cities  of 
twenty  thousand  population  and  over  at  a  cost 
of  about  three  dollars  per  thousand  feet  of 
product.  As  cities  can  borrow  for  four  per 
cent,  the  allowance  for  interest  would  be  about 
twelve  cents  per  thousand.  In  twenty-two 
large   cities   the    companies    are    paying   hand- 


140  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

some  dividends  on  a  capitalization  of  $T.']2  per 
tliousand  feet.  If  dividends  are  six  per  cent, 
this  would  be  an  average  monopoly  squeezing 
of  forty-six  cents  on  the  thousand  feet.  In 
Chicago,  with  a  capitalization  of  $10.63,  it 
would  be  sixty  cents  a  thousand. 

Electric  lighting  shows  even  more  startling 
comparisons.  The  average  cost  per  light  per 
year  of  arcs  operated  by  twenty-three  cities  is 
$53.04.  Making  the  very  liberal  allowance  of 
twelve  per  cent  on  the  total  cost  of  plant  and 
buildings,  for  interest,  depreciation,  and  taxes, 
the  average  cost  is  $86.64,  ^-^''tl,  at  an  allowance 
of  seven  per  cent  the  cost  is  only  $75.64.  But 
twenty-nine  private  companies  under  substan- 
tially similar  conditions,  and  for  the  same  lights, 
receive  an  average  of  $106.61  — from  twenty  to 
forty  per  cent  higher  than  public  cost. 

There  are  very  few  cities,  abroad  or  at  home, 
which  own  and  operate  their  street  railways. 
But  Plymouth,  Glasgow,  and  London  have  re- 
cently purchased  portions  of  their  lines  and 
have  just  begun  to  operate  them.  Thirty-three 
English  cities  own  their  linos  but  lease  them  to 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  I4I 

companies.  Toronto  operated  its  lines  for  six 
months  at  a  profit  of  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars per  month,  but  has  leased  them  to  a  pri- 
vate company  for  twelve  thousand  dollars  per 
month. 

The  enormous  profits  of  street  railway  lines 
is  well  known,  as  well  as  the  magnificent  stock- 
watering  which  is  based  upon  them.  The 
Manhattan  Elevated  of  New  York  City,  cost- 
ing- ^22,000,000,  is  bonded  and  stocked  at 
$70,000,000,  pays  six  per  cent  dividends,  and 
its  inflated  stock  sells  at  one  hundred  and  sev- 
enty dollars.  Nearly  every  city  in  the  country 
shows  these  roads  paying  good  dividends  on 
from  two  to  five  times  their  cost. 

Now,  what  could  be  done  by  cities  if  they 
owned  and  operated  their  railways.-'  In  the  first 
place,  they  can  borrow  money  at  two-thirds  the 
rate  paid  by  private  corporations.  They  would 
not  seek  profits,  but  could  immediately  reduce 
charges  one-half.  Traffic  would  be  greatly  in- 
creased. Private  corporations  are  often  short- 
sighted in  the  conduct  of  their  own  business. 
The  State  of  Iowa  throuirh  its  State  commis- 


142  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

sion  reduced  the  charges  for  railway  freight 
in  that  state  eighteen  per  cent.  The  railways 
protested,  and  had  the  law  declared  unconstitu- 
tional by  the  federal  court.  But  they  did  not 
ask  to  have  the  judicial  decree  enforced,  be- 
cause, in  the  mean  time,  their  net  earnings 
had  increased  twenty-five  per  cent.  Hungary 
reduced  the  passenger  charges  on  her  state 
railways  seventy-five  per  cent,  and  the  traffic 
increased  nearly  five  hundred  per  cent,  while 
the  net  earnings  increased  thirty  to  forty  per 
cent. 

Not  only  would  cities  lower  the  charges,  they 
would  also  improve  the  service.  The  poorer 
districts  would  receive  extensions,  cars  would 
be  furnished  in  abundance,  warm  coaches  would 
be  substituted  for  hay-barns.  Better  wages 
would  be  paid,  drivers  protected  from  the  cold, 
shorter  hours  and  holidays  would  be  provided. 

What  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  business 
industry  of  the  city }  Every  family  would  save 
twenty  to  forty  dollars  from  street-car  fares  to 
spend  for  clothing,  groceries,  shoes,  and  amuse- 
ments.   Profits  from  the  street-car  business  would 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 43 

be  spent  at  home  instead  of  in  Europe.  This 
would  increase  the  business  of  a  city  by  liun- 
dreds  of  thousands  of  dollars.  Laboring  people 
could  live  in  the  country,  and  own  their  homes. 
They  would  take  a  personal  interest  in  city  gov- 
ernment. Tenements  would  not  be  crowded. 
Sanitary  conditions  would  be  improved  and  the 
death-rate  lowered.  Men  out  of  work  could  ride 
in  search  of  employment,  instead  of  wearily 
tramping  the  streets.  Laborers  would  be  in 
better  health,  have  better  food,  do  better  work, 
and  all  city  industries  would  be  materially  ad- 
vanced and  stimulated.  So  great  are  the  possi- 
bilities of  cheap  transportation  that  I  believe 
the  time  will  come  when  cities  will  carry  freight 
as  well  as  passengers,  and  will  perform  this 
work  free  of  charge,  paying  the  expenses  out  of 
taxes.  Consider  what  a  blight  it  would  be  to 
have  our  streets  themselves  owned  by  private 
companies,  and  every  pedestrian  compelled  to 
pay  toll  when  going  through  the  turnstile  or 
under  the  gates.  As  cities  grow  in  size  and 
become  overcrowded,  the  actual  work  of  trans- 
portation  will    become    as    important,  and   will 


144  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

have  to  be  clone  on  the  same  prhiciple,  as  the 
present  work  of  merely  paving,  bridging,  and 
cleaning  the  streets. 

I  need  not  go  further  to  show  what  are  the 
possibilities  of  city  ownership  and  manage- 
ment. Everybody  concedes  most  of  this.  But 
you  are  doubtless  thinking,  "  All  this  is  very 
fine,  but  do  you  not  know  that  city  government 
in  America  is  the  most  corrupt  thing  on  earth  .-' 
You  want  to  increase  the  civil  service  five  or 
ten  times.  You  want  to  put  thousands  of 
employees  in  the  ranks  of  spoils.  You  want  a 
carnival  of  corruption.  You  want  to  bring 
these  important  enterprises  into  politics." 

Now,  I  ask,  can  they  ever  be  deeper  in  pol- 
itics than  they  are  to-day  .■"  They,  unlike  other 
kinds  of  business,  depend  directly  upon  legis- 
lation for  their  franchises.  And  if  we  adopt 
more  stringent  public  control,  we  but  increase 
their  dependence  on  politics.  But,  if  they  be 
owned  by  the  city,  to  whose  interest  would  it 
be  to  bribe  aldermen  and  legislators .''  What 
would  become  of  the  lobby  .''  Would  aldermen 
and  leirislators  introduce  bills  in  order  to  black- 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 45 

mail  them,  and  then  withdraw  the  bills  ?  In 
fact,  city  ownership  takes  them  out  of  politics. 
This  is  universally  the  case  in  the  cities  of 
Europe ;  and  even  in  our  own  corrupt  cities, 
the  same  is  true. 

Yet  I  do  not  belittle  this  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. I  agree  that  city  government  must  be 
improved  before  these  industries  can  be  safely 
intrusted  to  it.  In  the  minds  of  nearly  every 
one,  this  is  the  only  stumbling  block  in  the 
way  of  city  operation.  Therefore,  here  is 
where  our  most  earnest  attention  must  be 
directed. 

The  question  is  one  simply  of  choosing 
agents.  The  only  advantage  now  possessed 
by  a  private  corporation  over  a  municipal  one, 
is  the  greater  ability  and  freedom  of  private 
stockholders  in  selecting  managers  and  opera- 
tors. They  do  not  attend  to  the  management 
themselves.  They  choose  others  to  do  it. 
And  this  is  what  a  city  must  do  if  it  operates 
its  own  works. 

The  problem,  then,  is  one  of  the  civil  service. 
Is  it    impossible   to  devise  a  system  of   public 


146  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

selection  which  shall  choose  able  and  experi- 
enced men  to  carry  on  public  enterprises,  which 
shall  make  them  responsible  to  the  people  and 
not  to  the  party  managers,  and  which  shall 
give  them  secure  tenure  of  office  so  long  as 
they  do  their  work  well  ?  Private  corporations 
do  this.     Can  public  corporations  do  the  same  ? 

I  do  not  believe  that  America  need  fall 
behind  Europe  and  Australia  in  this  matter. 
They  have  perfect  and  incorruptible  city  gov- 
ernments.    Cannot  we  .-* 

It  is  not  necessary  to  imitate  foreign  cities. 
Our  problems  are  our  own.  They  must  be 
solved  in  our  own  way.  And  he  is  quite  blind 
who  does  not  see  that  we  are  beginning  to 
solve  them.  First,  we  have  about  settled  the 
question  of  the  mayor.  We  have  discovered 
the  secret  of  individual  personal  responsibility. 
We  have  done  nothing  yet  for  councils  and 
boards  of  aldermen,  except  to  shear  them  of 
their  power.  But  the  time  will  soon  come 
when  they  will  be  as  well  under  control  as  the 
mayor.  Why  is  it  that  American  cities  have 
capable,  economical  fire  departments.^    It  is  be- 


MUNICIPAL   MOiYOPOLIES.  142 

cause  the  insurance  companies  put  up  the  pre- 
miums, and  the  business  community  is  forced, 
through  the  nerves  of  its  pocket-book,  to  bring 
the  fire  department  into  line  with  upright  busi- 
ness principles.  The  same  can  be  done  for 
every  other  department  of  city  government. 
Let  us  take  the  fire  department  as  a  model. 
Let  us  improve  it  in  places.  Let  us  apply  its 
methods  to  the  entire  city  government.  Then 
there  will  be  no  question  of  political  corrup- 
tion. 

I  will  sketch  the  way  in  which  it  seems  to 
me  the  thing  can  be  done,  taking  as  a  model 
certain  features  of  the  fire  departments  in 
various  cities  of  the  Union. 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  city  has  purchased 
the  street-cars  and  purposes  to  operate  them. 
First,  the  mayor  is  the  one  responsible  head 
for  the  city  government.  He  appoints  a  single 
head  of  the  department  of  transportation,  who 
is  responsible  to  him  and  none  other.  This  di- 
rector of  transportation  is  appointed  only  dur- 
ing the  term  of  the  mayor,  and  is  therefore  not 
an  operative  or  superintendent,  but  a  political 


148  MUiXICIFAL   MONOPOLIES. 

officer,  who  determines  the  general  policy  of 
his  department  and  represents  it  before  the 
people. 

The  director  appoints  the  superintendent, 
or  general  manager.  This  is  not  a  political 
office,  but  a  kind  of  technical  superintendency. 
The  officer  is  appointed  for  life  or  good  be- 
havior. He  must  be  a  scientific  expert,  ac- 
quainted with  all  systems  of  transportation  at 
home  and  abroad.  He  is  responsible  only  to 
the  director,  and  is  the  only  officer  whom  the 
director  appoints. 

This  superintendent  in  turn  appoints  his 
immediate  subordinates,  such  as  foremen  of 
the  different  divisions.  And  the  foremen  ap- 
point the  operatives.  Appointments  must,  in 
all  cases  except  the  lowest,  be  made  by  way 
of  promoting  individuals  who  are  already  in  the 
service.  There  is  thus  a  regular  gradation  of 
responsibility.  Every  individual  in  the  entire 
service  is  responsible  to  but  one  man,  and  that 
his  immediate  superior.  Every  individual  is 
appointed  for  life  or  good  behavior.  Every 
individual,  from  the  director  down  to  the  day- 


MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  1 49 

laborer,  can  be  summarily  dismissed  from  the 
service  only  by  his  immediate  superior.  But 
the  only  valid  reasons  for  dismissal  are  incom- 
petency and  such  insubordination  as  is  injuri- 
ous to  the  service.  Every  man  dismissed  has 
the  riijht  of  public  trial  before  a  bench  of 
judges  composed,  perhaps,  of  the  mayor,  the 
chairman  of  the  city  council,  and  the  judge  of 
the  circuit  court.  This  bench  must  summon 
witnesses,  vv^ho  must  testify  under  oath,  and 
the  dismissed  officer  must  be  confronted  by  the 
superior  who  dismissed  him.  The  bench  of 
judges  has  power  to  affirm  the  removal  or  to 
reinstate  the  officer.  Proceedings  are  to  be 
public,  and  the  press,  public  opinion,  and  the 
high  standard  of  the  judges,  will  see  that  jus- 
tice is  done. 

Every  appointee  of  the  service  should  re- 
ceive a  pension  after  he  reaches  the  age  of 
sixty  or  sixty-five,  according  to  the  nature  of 
his  duties  and  the  state  of  his  health,  as  is 
done  in  fire  departments.  The  fund  for  this 
pension  should  be  contributed  partly  from  a 
tax  on  the  wages  of  employees,  and  partly  from 


150  MUNICIPAL   MONOPOLIES. 

the  income  of  the  business.  Tlie  prospect  of 
this  pension  will  be  a  noble  incentive  to  in- 
tegrity and  efficiency. 

Lastly,  we  have  to-day  the  secret  official  bal- 
lot. This  protects  every  employee  in  the  free- 
dom of  his  vote.  He  is  not  constrained  to  vote 
for  the  party  in  power  in  order  to  hold  his  place. 

With  a  civil  service  like  this  there  would 
not  be  the  shadow  of  a  charge  of  incompetency 
or  corruption.  Regulations  even  less  complete 
render  the  fire  service  of  American  cities  an 
enviable  model.  No  one  advocates  a  return 
to  the  days  of  private  fire  companies.  With 
the  public  service  conducted  in  like  manner, 
all  the  advantages  which  I  have  sketched  may 
be  expected  from  public  ownership  of  every 
public  function.  But  without  civil  service 
reform  it  is  better  to  go  along  as  we  are.  The 
two  must  in  truth  come  together.  People  will 
understand  the  need  of  the  one  as  it  comes 
with  the  other.  And  witli  public  ownership  of 
the  monopolies,  city  government  in  America 
may  be  expected  to  take  on  generally  a  high 
plane  of  morals  and  efficiency.     The  best  citi- 


MUXICIPAL   MONOPOLIES.  151 

zens  would  take  greater  interest  than  now. 
The  poorest  citizens  would  look  upon  them- 
selves as  sharers  in  the  municipal  prosperity. 
There  would  be  no  wealthy  private  corpora- 
tions, dependent  directly  upon  legislatures  and 
councils,  and  compelled  to  resort  to  sinister 
influences.  A  new  idea  of  what  the  city  is  for 
would  become  current,  and  with  it  a  new  kind 
of  politics,  a  revived  prosperity,  and  a  happi- 
ness more  widely  diffused. 


PROPORTIONAL 
REPRESENTATION. 


PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION. 

The  legislature  is  the  weak  point  in  demo- 
cratic government.  The  American  people  have 
succeeded  fairly  well  in  the  organization  of  the 
executive,  judicial,  and  administrative  depart- 
ments ;  but  their  law-making  bodies  are  a  sick- 
ening failure.  This  applies  to  all  grades  of 
legislatures,  —  municipal.  State,  and  federal. 
The  name  alderman  is  now  a  synonym  for 
boodler  and  embezzler.  To  become  a  member 
of  a  legislature  is  understood  in  many  States 
to  be  an  invitation  for  bribes.  The  business 
interests  of  the  country  are  reported  to  be  in 
a  gasp  of  agony  as  long  as  Congress  is  in 
session. 

As  might  be  expected,  this  distrust  has 
shown  itself  in  many  and  far-reaching  con- 
stitutional changes.  The  powers  of  State  and 
city  legislatures  have  been  clipped  and  trimmed 
and  shorn  until   they  offer  no  inducements  to 


I  5  6      PR  OPOR  no  XA  L   REPRESENTA  TIO.W 

upright  ambition.  The  powers  of  governors, 
mayors,  administrative  boards,  and  judges  have 
been  correspondingly  increased.  The  growing 
popularity  of  the  executive  veto  is  one  of  the 
startling  facts  of  the  times.  I  know  a  city 
whose  people  turned  out  in  mass-meeting  to 
illuminate  the  heavens  wMth  bonfires  in  honor 
of  a  mayor's  veto  which  had  rescued  them 
from  outrages  perpetrated  by  their  own  law- 
fully elected  "  city  fathers." 

The  judiciary  has  gained  materially  at  the 
expense  of  the  legislatures,  both  in  the  express 
provisions  of  constitutions,  and  in  the  popular 
approval.  Conscious  of  the  feelings  of  the 
people,  judges  have  steadily  encroached  upon 
the  very  fields  of  legislative  discretion,  and 
reluctantly,  it  may  be,  have  more  and  more 
assumed  the  right  to  set  aside  legislative  en- 
actments. This  has  become  boldly  apparent 
in  numerous  recent  decisions  overthrowing 
such  peculiarly  political  statutes  as  those 
which  redistrict  a  state  for  the  election  of 
representatives.  This  interference  of  the  ju- 
diciary,   however    justifiable    the    reasons,    can 


PR  OrOR  TIONA  L   REPRESENTA  TIOiV.       I  5  7 

only  be  fraught  with  clanger  to  itself.  It  is 
thereby  forced  into  the  arena  where  are  the 
heated  questions  of  political  expediency,  at 
the  expense  of  its  integrity  in  the  field  where 
administration  and  justice  alone  are  its  sphere. 
The  statement  is  often  made  that  representa- 
tive government  is  a  failure,  especially  in  cities. 
But  true  representative  government  does  not 
exist.  We  have  a  sham  representation.  It 
gives  a  show  of  fairness.  But  it  is  crude  and 
essentially  unfair.  It  does  not  represent  the 
people.  It  represents  the  politicians.  We  are 
a  law-abiding  people.  Yet  our  laws  are  made 
by  a  minority  of  the  people,  and  by  an  irre- 
sponsible oligarchy  more  dangerous  than  that 
our  fathers  revolted  against.  The  Congress 
which  passed  the  McKinley  bill  did  not  rep- 
resent the  people.  There  was  a  Republican 
majority  of  three,  but  according  to  the  popular 
vote  there  should  have  been  a  Democratic  ma- 
jority of  seven.  In  the  succeeding  Congress 
there  was  supposed  to  be  the  most  momentous 
upheaval  in  the  history  of  American  politics. 
The  Democrats  had  a  majority  of  119  over  all. 


I  5  3      rROPOR  TIONAL   REPRESEXTA  770 N. 

But  had  the  people  been  represented  this  ma- 
jority would  have  been  only  39.  In  the  present 
Congress  the  Democrats  have  a  majority  of 
79,  whereas  (taking  the  Presidential  vote  of 
1892  as  a  basis)  they  should  be  in  a  minority 
of  29  ;  the  People's  party  should  have  32  votes 
instead  of  8,  and  the  Republicans  152  instead 
of  129.  To  call  our  Congress  a  representative 
body  is  the  essence  of  sarcasm.  To  mention 
two  or  three  States,  Indiana  elects  13  Con- 
gressmen. According  to  the  popular  vote  they 
should  stand  7  Democrats  and  6  Republicans. 
According  to  the  gerrymander  they  are  1 1 
Democrats  and  only  2  Republicans.  In  other 
words,  every  Hoosier  Democrat  whom  you  may 
meet  has  an  influence  on  the  legislation  of  his 
country  equal  to  that  of  five  and  two-fifths 
Republicans, 

In  Iowa  it  goes  the  other  way.  With  219,215 
votes  in  1892  the  Republicans  elected  ten  Con- 
gressmen, while  the  Democrats  with  201,923 
votes  elected  only  one.  One  Republican  of 
that  State  is  equal  to  nearly  ten  Democrats. 
In  Maine  Gs,6iJ  Republicans  elect  all  the  four 


PR  OPOR  TlOiYA  L   REPRESENTA  TION.      I  5  9 

Congressmen,  though  the  Democrats  cast 
55,778  votes.  In  Maryland  and  Texas  the 
Democrats  get  them  all ;  and  in  Kansas  the 
Democrats  have  never  had  a  representative 
since  the  birth  of  the  State,  though  they  cast 
from  a  third  to  two-fifths  of  the  vote. 

There  is  similar  injustice  in  State  and  city 
legislatures.  It  is  even  more  glaring  than 
in  the  national  legislature.  In  the  latter 
there  is  a  kind  of  counterpoise,  since  a  gerry- 
mander in  a  Democratic  State  is  likely  to  be 
offset  by  another  in  a  Republican  State.  But 
in  a  State  legislature  it  goes  all  one  way.  In- 
diana in  1892,  taking  the  presidential  vote  as  a 
basis,  should  have  elected  to  the  lower  house 
48  Democrats,  46  Republicans,  4  Populists,  and 
2  Prohibitionists.  She  actually  elected  6^^ 
Democrats  and  37  Republicans.  In  the  upper 
house  the  vote  should  have  stood,  Democrats 
24,  Republicans  23,  Populists  2,  Prohibition- 
ists I.  Instead  of  this  it  was,  Democrats  35, 
Republicans  15.  Ohio  elected  72  Republicans 
and  35  Democrats  to  the  lower  house.  If  the 
people  had  been  truly  represented,  there  would 


1 60      PRO  FOR  TIONAL   REPRESENTA  TION. 

have  been,  51  Republicans,  51  Democrats,  3 
Prohibitionists,  and  2  Populists. 

I  have  mentioned  the  gerrymander.  This 
animal  is  now  attracting  considerable  attention. 
And  he  deserves  it.  Yet  he  is  but  a  natural 
growth  and  a  mere  incident  of  the  system  of 
electing  representatives  in  all  parliamentary 
countries.  This  system  requires  a  single  rep- 
resentative, elected  by  a  majority  or  a  plurality 
vote,  to  stand  for  a  limited  territorial  district. 
The  district  has  no  natural  boundaries.  It 
must,  therefore,  be  artificially  outlined  by  the 
legislature.  The  party  in  power  does  this  in 
such  a  way  that  its  own  voters  shall  have  small 
majorities  in  a  large  number  of  districts,  and 
the  opposite  party  large  majorities  in  a  small 
number  of  districts.  The  gerrymander  is  only 
an  incident  of  the  district  system,  and  one  of 
its  minor  faults  at  that.  The  system  itself  has 
become  obsolete. 

Public  questions  which  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  our  present  system  of  repre- 
sentation originated,  were  only  local  and  sec- 
tional, are  now  national  questions.     The  early 


PR  OPOR  TIONA  L   REPRESENTA  TION.      1 6 1 

problem  of  representative  government  was, 
How  to  bring  together  into  a  single  strong 
government  widely  separated  localities,  with- 
out destroying  their  local  governments  ?  It 
was  the  problem  of  federation.  This  problem 
has  now  been  settled  in  all  free  nations. 

Moreover,  economic  and  social  questions  in 
those  times  were  class  questions.  Mercantile 
law,  import  and  export  duties,  were  determined 
by  representatives  of  the  cities ;  the  tenure 
of  land  by  the  military  tenants  ;  ecclesiastical 
law  by  the  church  assemblies.  But  to-day  the 
organic  nature  of  every  great  nation  has  made 
these  into  national  questions  of  vital  interest  to 
every  class  and  section.  In  the  United  States 
we  have  lately  seen  citizenship  and  the  rights 
of  property  come  under  federal  protection,  and 
federal  control  has  reached  out  for  our  two 
most  influential  business  interests,  —  banking 
and  railways.  Federal  interference  will  be 
much  further  extended  when  national  trusts 
and   syndicates   become   further   consolidated. 

In  the  earlier  times  there  were  several  rea- 
sons why  the  district  system  fairly  represented 


1 62      PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION. 

the  electors  and  returned  able  representatives. 
There  were  no  national  political  parties,  since 
there  were  no  national  political  questions.  The 
earliest  parties  were  divided  on  territorial  lines. 
In  England  the  Whigs  were  the  city  party,  and 
the  Tories  the  country  party.  Each  represent- 
ative therefore  stood  for  a  unanimous  constit- 
uency. In  both  England  and  the  colonics  the 
legislature  was  the  representative  of  the  people 
united  in  opposition  to  a  sovereign  or  his  dep- 
uty. Political  parties,  as  we  understand  them, 
are  of  recent  origin.  In  the  United  States 
they  are  the  growth  of  the  last  fifty  years, 
and  especially  since  the  civil  war  have  they 
made  their  marked  advances.  The  peculiar 
feature  of  this  development  has  been  the  su- 
premacy of  that  new  force  in  politics,  the 
"  machine."  Party  organization  is  an  essential 
element  of  party  government  ;  but  the  extent, 
perfection,  and  detail  of  this  organization  in 
the  United  States  is  bewildering.  It  controls 
candidate  and  voters  with  an  iron  grip,  and 
they  glory  in  their  subjection. 

To-day  the  legislature,  instead  of  being  the 


PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION.       1 63 

united  representatives  of  those  who  protest 
against  the  government,  is  itself  the  govern- 
ment. Within  its  halls  occur  the  conflicts  for 
the  control  of  tlie  fortunes  and  destinies  of 
the  people.  There  is  no  outside  enemy  whose 
constant  presence  enforces  harmony  and  mu- 
tual help.  But  two  great  parties,  backed  by 
their  machines,  stand  face  to  face,  and  which- 
ever masters  the  legislature,  masters  the  people. 
The  districts  which  elect  representatives  are  no 
longer  unanimous,  but  are  usually  quite  equally 
divided  between  the  two  parties.  Hence  we 
have  the  disproportionate  power  of  small  ag- 
gressive factions  with  selfish  interests  holding 
the  balance  of  power.  Here  is  the  long  lever- 
age of  saloons,  gamblers,  and  bribers. 

The  suffrage,  too,  has  been  widened.  When 
a  limited,  local  oligarchy  selected  a  representa- 
tive, it  had  all  the  freedom  of  choice  which  is 
exercised  to-day  in  private  business  by  the 
directors  of  a  corporation  in  selecting  mana- 
gers, agents,  and  attorneys. 

Again,  legislation  in  the  olden  time  was  very 
meagre.     The  people  were  satisfied  to  live  ac- 


164      PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION. 

cording  to  the  customs  of  their  ancestors. 
Government  was  shnply  a  matter  of  adminis- 
tration ;  a  representative  system  which  could 
succeed  then  would  fail  now  when  legislation  is 
the  most  intricate  of  arts,  depending  upon  the 
profoundest  of  sciences,  and  dominating  the 
most  vital  of  human  interests. 

Lastly,  the  private  corporation  with  its  pro- 
fessional lobby  was  unknown  fifty  years  ago. 
The  lobby  and  the  "machine"  have  grown  up 
together  like  Siamese  twins.  The  professional 
lobbyists  are  nearly  always  the  managers  of  the 
political  machine.  They  carry  in  their  pockets 
the  political  fortunes  of  the  legislators.  The 
"third  house"  is  the  legislature.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  a  representative  system  which 
sufficed  for  an  era  of  isolated,  petty  industries 
should  wither  and  rot  in  a  day  of  private  cor- 
porations with  public  functions  and  fabulous 
resources. 

Proportional  representation  is  presented  as  a 
remedy,  not  only  for  the  gerrymander,  but  also 
for  the  general  collapse  of  legislatures.  Ac- 
cording   to    this     reform,    legislative    districts 


PROPORTIONAL  REPRESENTATION.      1 6$ 

electing  single  representatives,  are  to  be  abol- 
ished entirely.  This  is  the  primitive  method 
unsuited  to  modern  problems.  Representatives 
are  to  be  elected  on  a  general  ticket  for  the 
city,  county,  or  State,  as  the  case  may  be.  Po- 
litical parties  or  groups  of  voters  equal  to  one 
per  cent  of  the  electorate  may  put  in  nomina- 
tion a  ticket  or  list  of  candidates  containing  as 
many  names  as  they  choose,  up  to  the  total 
number  of  representatives  to  be  elected.  The 
elector  votes  as  at  present  with  the  Austra- 
lian ballot.  His  votes  count  primarily  for  tick- 
ets, and  not  for  individual  candidates,  but  he 
may  indicate  his  preferences  for  individuals  on 
the  ticket  for  which  he  votes.  Should  he  scat- 
ter his  votes  among  the  candidates  on  different 
tickets,  a  vote  for  a  candidate  counts  as  a  vote 
for  the  ticket  on  which  the  candidate  figures, 
and  any  unexpressed  votes  are  attributed  to  the 
ticket  for  which  he  votes  as  a  whole.  The  re- 
turning officers  determine  first  the  number  of 
votes  given  to  each  ticket ;  and  the  proportion 
which  this  vote  bears  to  the  total  vote  indi- 
cates   the    number   of    elected    representatives 


l66      PROPORTIONAL    REPRESENTATION. 

to  which  each  ticket  is  entitled.  The  success- 
ful candidates  are  discovered  by  taking  those 
on  each  ticket  who  have  the  highest  number  of 
preferences  up  to  the  total  number  of  candidates 
to  which  the  respective  tickets  are  entitled. 

The  principle  involved,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  very  slight  change  from  present  methods, 
can  be  shown  by  a  table  of  votes  for  presiden- 
tial electors.  I  have  selected  the  State  of 
Indiana,  and  have  taken  the  vote  as  given  in 
the  fall  of  1892,  indicating  the  particular  can- 
didates by  Roman  numerals  in  the  order  in 
which  they  stood  on  the  respective  tickets. 


Dem. 

Rep. 

People's. 

Proh. 

I. 

262,270* 

255>6i5* 

22,20S 

13,050 

II. 

260,661* 

253,87s* 

21,861 

12,830 

III. 

260,600* 

253.836* 

21,883 

12,827 

IV. 

260,586* 

253.815* 

21,876 

12,824 

V. 

260,580 

253.799* 

21,873 

12,823 

VI. 

260,560 

253,807* 

21,873 

12,821 

VII. 

260,588* 

253.793 

21,873 

12,821 

VIII. 

260,547 

253,808* 

21,865 

12,820 

IX. 

260,575 

253.787 

21,873 

12,819 

X. 

260,600* 

253.792 

21,873 

12,813 

XI. 

260,591* 

253.777 

21,871 

12,820 

XII. 

260,590* 

253.767 

21,867 

12,819 

XIII. 

260,581 

253.767 

21,867 

12,815 

XIV. 

260,538 

253.770 

21,865 

12,816 

XV. 

260,533 

253.770 
3,808,791 

21,864 
328,392 

12,815 

3.910,390 

192,533 

PROPOKTIONAL   representation:       1 6/ 

Of  course,  under  the  existing  system  of 
majority  (or  rather  pkirality)  rule,  the  15  Dem- 
ocratic nominees  are  declared  the  successful 
candidates,  seeing  that  individually  each  one 
receives  more  votes  than  any  Republican  can- 
didate. But  with  proportional  representation, 
parties  rather  than  individuals  must  first  receive 
their  just  deserts.  Therefore  the  following 
calculation  is  made:  — 

Democratic 3,910,390 

Republican 3,808,791 

People's  328,392 

Prohibition 192,533 

TOTAL  8,240,106 

8,240,106  -f  IS  =  549,340. 

Since  there  are  15  representatives  to  be 
elected,  it  would  appear  that  every  party  should 
be  entitled  to  one  representative  for  every  fif- 
teenth part  which  it  receives  of  the  total  vote 
cast  for  all  parties.  This  quotient  would  be 
549,340.  But  since  the  People's  party  cast  only 
61  %  of  this  quotient,  and  the  Prohibitionists 
o'^ly  33  %)  they  have  not  attained  a  fair  elec- 
toral significance  (say,  75  %  of  the  quotient), 
and  should  be  excluded  altogether.  The  cal- 
culation would  then  proceed  as  follows  :  — 


1 68      PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION. 

Democratic 3,910,390 

Republican 3,808,791 

7,719,181 
7,718,181  ^  15  =  514,612  =  electoral  quotient. 
3,910,390 -i- 514,612  =  7  +  remainder  308,106 
3,808,791  4-  514,612  =  7  +  remainder  206,507 
TOTAL,  14 

The  Democratic  ticket,  having  the  largest 
remainder,  is  entitled  to  the  odd  delegate,  mak- 
ing a  total  representation  of  8  Democrats  and 
7  Republicans. 

It  now  remains  to  select  the  individual  can- 
didates on  the  several  tickets.  This  is  easily 
done  by  taking  the  8  Democrats  and  7  Repub- 
licans who  show  the  highest  number  of  indi- 
vidual votes.  I  have  indicated  these  successful 
candidates  by  an  asterisk.  The  fact  that  the 
7  Republicans  who  are  elected  receive  each  a 
less  number  of  votes  than  the  7  Democrats 
who  are  defeated  may  appear  at  first  as  a 
formal  objection  to  the  plan.  But  when  we  re- 
member that  it  is  representation  of  Republican 
and  Democratic  voters  that  we  wish,  and  not 
primarily  the  success  of  candidates,  the  objec- 
tion vanishes. 


PROPORTIONAL  REPRESENTATION.      1 69 

It  will  appear  from  the  foregoing  distribution 
of  seats  that  the  smaller  the  number  of  repre- 
sentatives to  be  elected,  the  more  difficult  it  is 
to  approach  equality.  Should  the  election  have 
been  held  for  the  fifty  members  of  the  Indiana 
State  Senate  (the  relative  standing  of  parties 
remaining  the  same),  the  result  would  have 
been  as  follows,  and  the  minority  parties  would 
not  have  been  excluded  :  — 

8,240,106  -j-  50  =  164,805  =  electoral  quotient. 
Democratic,  3,910,390 -r  164,805  =  23  +  remainder  119,875 
Republican,  3,808,791  -7-  164,805  =  23  +  remainder     18,276 
People's,  328,392  -r  164,805  =    i  +  remainder  163,587 

Prohibition,       192,533-^164,805=     i  +  remainder     27,728 
TOTAL,  48 

There  remain  two  senators  to  be  assigned 
to  the  parties  having  the  highest  remainders. 
When  this  is  done  the  Senate  stands  :  — 

Democrats 24 

Republicans 23 

Populists 2 

Prohibitionists I 

TOTAL,       50 

There  are,  indeed,  various  plans  proposed  for 
proportional  representation  besides  the  forego- 
ing, but  the   differences  are   minor.     They  all 


I/O      PROPORTIO.\AL   REPRESENTATION: 

agree  in  the  abolition  of  districts,  and  the 
substitution  of  election  at  large.  The  argu- 
ments for  the  adoption  of  one  will  serve  for  all. 
In  the  first  place,  the  gerrymander  would  be- 
come impossible.  Mathematical  justice  between 
parties  would  be  assured.  But,  more  important 
than  all,  legislative  bodies  would  be  transformed 
from  inefficient  and  corrupt  bands  of  spoilsmen 
into  capable,  upright,  and  representative  assem- 
blies of  law-makers.  The  power  of  the  ma- 
chine, the  boss,  and  the  lobby  would  be  broken. 
Bribery  would  be  rendered  fruitless,  and  repre- 
sentative government  would  become  what  it 
has  been  only  in  name  —  free. 

The  secret  of  most  of  the  evils  under  the 
modern  highly  organized  political  system  is  the 
factitious  importance  given  to  organized  mi- 
norities and  groups  which  hold  the  balance  of 
power.  This  is  the  necessary  result  of  a  sys- 
tem which  elects  single  public  officers  by  a 
majority  or  plurality  vote. 

Now,  plainly,  as  human  nature  happens  to 
be  constituted,  very  few  men  will  "bolt"  their 
party  nominees,  no  matter  how  bad  they  may 


PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION.      I/I 

be,  when  they  know  that  the  turn  of  a  few 
votes  means  the  success  of  the  opposite  party. 
Practically,  there  are  never  but  two  candidates 
to  choose  between.  A  third  party,  except  in 
times  of  political  earthquake,  has  no  chance 
whatever.  Nothing  to  the  American  is  so  cul- 
pable as  "  throwing  his  vote  away."  Conse- 
quently, the  American  way  of  bolting  a  ticket 
is  to  stay  at  home  ;  and  this  only  fortifies  the 
more  the  party  machine. 

Freedom  from  the  rule  of  the  machine  means 
first,  power  on  the  part  of  the  voters  to  con- 
trol the  nominations  of  their  party,  and  second, 
power  to  defeat  obnoxious  candidates  of  their 
own  party  without  endangering  the  success  of 
the  party. 

Power  to  control  nominations  involves  re- 
form of  the  primaries  and  conventions.  As  it 
is  well  known,  these  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
professionals,  and  here  is  the  source  of  their 
power.  The  main  ground  of  machine  rule  in 
primaries  and  conventions  is  the  system  of  ex- 
clusive majority  election.  The  chairman  is 
elected  by  a  majority  vote.      He  names  com- 


1/2      PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION. 

mittees,  of  course,  only  from  the  majority  fac- 
tion. Delegates,  also,  to  conventions  are 
elected  only  by  the  majority  vote.  This  is 
wholly  irrational.  Why  should  a  majority  fac- 
tion have  all  the  delegates  and  the  minority 
none  .-*  A  simple  device  of  proportional  voting 
would  remedy  this  serious  evil.  There  would 
then  be  no  "  cut-and-dried "  tickets.  Anti- 
machine  delegates  and  candidates  could  have 
some  hope  of  nomination,  and  their  support- 
ers would  have  a  motive  for  attending  the 
primaries. 

But  suppose  the  elector  finds  that  his  party 
ticket  has  been  put  forward  wholly  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  party  machine ;  that  there  is 
no  candidate  offered  to  him  whom  he  deems 
worthy  of  election.  Under  the  district  system 
he  must  vote  for  the  party  nominee  or  else 
stay  at  home,  or  cast  his  vote  in  such  a  way 
as  to  benefit  the  opposite  party.  Proportional 
representation  enables  him  to  "bolt"  the  party 
ticket  without  bolting  the  party. 

Of  course,  in  order  to  do  this,  he  must  join 
with  other  protestants  against  the  machine  and 


PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION.      1 73 

nominate  a  new  candidate  and  a  new  ticket. 
He  can  do  this  by  petition,  providing  one  per 
cent  of  the  voters  join  him. 

With  all  the  tickets  printed  on  the  Austra- 
lian ballot,  the  independent  voter  has  now  be- 
fore him  the  ticket  nominated  by  his  party 
organization  and  another  ticket  of  the  same 
party  nominated  by  petitioners  outside  the 
machine.  Suppose  he  votes  for  the  indepen- 
dent ticket.  He  does  not  endanger  the  success 
of  his  party  as  a  whole,  but  only  of  one  candi- 
date out  of  the  entire  ticket ;  and  he  runs  no 
risk  of  throwing  his  vote  away,  providing  as 
many  as  a  single  quotient  of  the  voters  of  the 
State  cast  their  ballots  with  him.  Under  the 
district  system  his  vote  would  be  wasted  unless 
the  voters  for  the  independent  were  a  majority 
or  a  plurality  of  the  voters  in  the  district.  In 
other  words,  the  present  system  pens  up  a 
minority  of  independent  voters  in  narrow  dis- 
tricts under  the  whip  of  the  party  managers, 
but  proportional  representation  tears  down  the 
fences,  and  enables  them  to  combine  through- 
out the  State  without  risking  the  success  of 
the  opposing  party. 


174      PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION. 

The  importance  of  a  reform  like  this  which 
would  make  the  legislature  independent  and 
capable  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  We  are 
living  in  a  day  of  agitation  for  industrial  and 
social  reform,  yet  there  is  scarcely  a  reform 
proposed  which  does  not  sooner  or  later  involve 
legislation.  The  legislature  holds  the  purse, 
the  life  of  the  State.  No  wonder  that  in  our 
country  there  is  a  marked  tendency  to  deprive 
these  bodies  of  even  discretionary  powers,  and 
to  bestow  such  powers  on  mayors,  governors, 
judges,  and  administrative  boards.  Yet  why 
should  we  expect  anything  better  of  our  repre- 
sentatives when  we  make  them  the  tools  of 
local  politicians,  and  when  one-third  to  two- 
thirds  of  the  members  of  city  councils,  State 
legislatures,  and  the  national  Congress  are  men 
serving  their  first  term  as  law-makers.-* 

It  is  not  maintained  that  proportional  repre- 
sentation alone  would  cure  all  our  modern  legis- 
lative ills.  The  late  Professor  de  Laveleye,  of 
Belgium,  has  well  said  that  the  remedies  for 
partisan  abuses  in  representative  government 
are    three:    Proportional  representation,  secret 


PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION.       1 75 

ballot,  and  civil  service  reform.  Indeed,  these 
reforms  are  complementary  and  co-operative. 
The  secret  ballot  has  prepared  the  way  for  a 
simple  application  of  proportional  representa- 
tion, giving  the  movement  an  advantage  which 
it  by  no  means  possessed  when  it  was  ably  ad- 
vocated twenty-five  years  ago.  Again,  legisla- 
tive reform  of  this  kind  is  impossible  in  the 
presence  of  a  spoils  system.  It  would  result 
in  constant  deadlocks.  United  States  senators 
could  no  longer  be  elected  by  legislatures.  But 
spoils  are  not  the  proper  quest  for  law-makers. 

With  these  three  reforms  co-operating  there 
need  be  no  fear  of  popular  government.  They 
are  not  make-shifts  nor  palliatives.  They  reach 
the  sources  of  power.  A  reformed  legislature 
would  be  the  mightiest  of  engines  for  handling 
every  other  reform.  It  controls  all  other  de- 
partments. It  is  nearest  the  people.  With 
proportional  representation  it  would  include 
the  best  wisdom,  integrity,  and  enterprise  of 
the  people.  It  would  represent  the  opinions 
and  wishes  of  the  people  in  the  same  propor- 
tions in  which  they  exist  at  large.     It  would  be 


176      PROPORTIONAL   REPRESENTATION. 

the  people  themselves  in  conference.  It  would 
be  a  deliberative  body  in  the  truest  sense,  and 
not  a  side-show  of  puppets  worked  by  the  party 
machine  and  the  lobby.  It  would  harmonize 
all  social  interests.  It  would  promote  a  spirit 
of  compromise  instead  of  partisan  advantage. 
It  would  give  power  to  the  majority,  a  hearing 
to  the  minority,  each  in  the  persons  of  their 
ablest  advocates. 


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